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Turkey 
Culture. 




price 50 Cents* 



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A 



TURKEY 
CULTURE 




Giving the Experience of the Most Successful 

Turkey Raisers in the United States 

with Numerous Illustrations. 



PUBLISHED B.Y 

EXCELSIOR WIRE & POULTRY SUPPLY COMPANY, 

28 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK CITY. 






s^ 



GEORGE E. HOWARD & CO., PBS., WASHINGTON, D. C. 



i 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

MAY. 29 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASSCO XXc. N» 

COPY B. 



S'F** 7 



INDEX. 



Attention, Constant, Necessary for Success 62 

Blood, The Best the Most Profitable 61 

Breed, The Best 60 

Breeders Should Exhibit 55 

Breeders, Selecting 69 

Shape for 72 

Enclose the 23 

Coloring-, Size, and Weight 88 

Cookin g Turkeys, Method of 36 

Culls, Fewer Among Turkeys than Among Chickens 70 

Selling 66 

Decline in Turkey Breeding in Eastern States, Reasons for 7 

Deformed Birds, Never Breed from 72 

Diarrhea and Eice 31 

Disease, Symptoms of 52 

A Mysterious 59-67 

Isolation of Necessary 42 

Eggs, Experiment with a Earge 76 

Hatches from Small 75 

Ninety a Season 62 

Satisfactory Experiment with Small 75 

Small May Hatch Big Turkeys 57 

Number to a Clutch 76 

Soft-Shelled 78 

Exercise, Evils from Eack of 31 

Exhibition, Preparing for 68 

Express Companies' Rates 37 

Feeding, Fall 1 1-17 

And Care 79 

Green Food for Growth 25 

Management of 12 

Turkeys Require Frequent 46 

Fighting Toms, Preventive for 59 

Foods, Bone and Muscle-Producing 40 

For Young Turkeys 14 

Proportion of Heat-Producing to Flesh-Forming 40 

Golden Rule Should Guide the Fancier 74 

Grit, Supply 24 

HatckiugvFkne*. ..»,*.•.,#.».•....• ••.*>.. j .*»* 22 

Housing Tjfrk^fe. *„•.•.,.: .;...: »::..:. .;. 18-45 

Lack ogSflc^e.ss^Frecju^nt Causes of..,;. ?.. ;...• 42 

Legs, Pink , 71 

Red-Eegged Pullet 73 

Eice, IHar*heaa£Ki«.. „»,.♦. ,». .*....»••.». .. ..-••. 4 «. 31 

0.« Tifrk^J-s,.; . . . . •.:.•.:.•...«... t „;*...» 83 

t^Vm&V£ :••■;••.•• -v- :V g 

Sulphur Tor Injurious 56 

Watch Closely for 25 

Management 84 

Market for Turkeys, Good 53 

Marking the Poults 32 

Mating 6 

Best Method of 63-73 



i 

III 



Nesting-Time, At 48 

Overfeeding - Causes Death 28 

Don't Overfeed 24 

Pepper, Use of Red 53 

Post-Mortem Examinations 63 

Poultry Raising-, Profits in 61 

Prices, Low, Mean Poor Stock 5g 

Quarters, Filthy 68 

Roup, Cause* of . 80 

Rain, Colds 30 

Scoring Birds 67 

Shipping Dressed Turkeys 35 

Show Birds, Selecting 54 

Sickness, Preventives and Remedies for 37 

Size and Markings, Selecting for 7i 

Some Important Points 51 

Stock, Contaminated Should be Excluded from Markets 36 

Breeding from Weakened 23 

Judging the 33 

Selecting the Breeding 69 

Swelled Head and its Remedies 68 

Swelling on Hock 79 

Swollen Foot on Tom 77 

Tapeworms. How Contracted a Question 81 

Prevalence of in Turkeys 81 

Remedies for 81 

Turkeys, Always a Welcome Guest at the Feast 69 

Setting on the Ground 74 

The Bronze - 43 

Soon Learn to Know their Home 47 

Drooping 77 

In Alfalfa Patch 84 

Range for 84 

Varieties of 5-19 

Shipping Dressed 35 

Method of Cooking 36 

Free-Range the Hardiest 86 

To Have Big 87 

Bourbon Red 87 

Success with 52 

The Wild 89 

Raise More 25 

Late-Hatched » 29 

Habits of the Wild 90 

Feeding the Growing 39 

Turkey Raising on the Farm 48 

Essentials in 32 

Not to be Learned in a Day or a Year 27 

Not More Confining than other Occupations .... 26 

Unsuccessful Turkey Breeding , 41 

Varieties, Characteristics of 33 

Popular 5-19-45 

Water, Fresh, and Clean Fountains 38 

Weight and Size, Distinction Between 63 

— m Must Not be Sacrificed to Fancy Markings 65 

Yarding Old Birds 21-29 

Fifty Enough in One Yard 26 

Young Turkeys, Food for 14 

Caring for ; 22-49 

Cooked Food for 56 

Feeding 22-39-50 

Marking - 32 

Poults Easier to Raise than Chicks 26 

Raising 46-85 



PRACTICAL TURKEY RAISING. 



THE RECOGNIZED VARIETIES OF TURKEYS — GENERAL-PURPOSE 
TURKEYS — MATING — SELECTING BREEDERS — BORROW- 
ING AND BUYING POOR MALE BIRDS — ONE MAIN REASON 
FOR THE DECLINE IN TURKEY BREEDING IN THE EAST- 
ERN STATES— FOOD FOR THE YOUNG TURKEYS — FALL 
FEEDING — MANAGEMENT OF FEEDING — A MISTAKEN 
IDEA. 



BY J. F. CRANGLE. 

<^fc^HERE are six recognized varieties of turkeys 
/ \ in the American Standard of Perfection. 
^^■^ For general purposes the Bronze Turkey is 
considered to be the best, for many reasons. 
They are very hardy, we might say the hardiest of 
all turkeys; good layers, and the best of mothers. 
A Bronze Turkey will lay from eighteen to forty eggs 
a year under proper management. In breeding tur- 
keys, a person should select stock for the season not 
later than the first of December preceding, by select- 
ing out the finest shaped birds. One of the most 
particular points is to be sure that their breast -bones 
are all straight, as many turkeys have crooked breast- 
bones. When speaking of the breast -bone, we might 
say that it is the bone which runs between the legs. 
A person can easily ascertain whether the bone is 
crooked or not by catching the turkey and examining 
the breast -bone by feeling of it. If the stock is se- 
lected early in the season, say not later than Decern- 



ber, we are quite sure, from experience, better results 
can be attained. It takes a Bronze Turkey several 
weeks to get wonted to a place. 

It is generallyxonsidered that one male bird should 
be mated to from five to eight hens, but a good, vigor- 
ous male is capable of taking care of twenty -five hens, 
if necessary. But right here we might say that it is 
not a good plan to mate one male turkey with too 
many hens, for the simple reason that a male only has 
one connection with the female. If the male bird, from 
any cause whatever, should not fertilize the litter of 
eggs, the best part of the whole season is lost, because 
if the female has been served by the male bird she will 




BRONZE TURKEYS. 



go off and make her nest, lay her litter of eggs, and the 
eggs not being fertilized, the same is lost. So it is not 
wise to depend too much on one male bird with too 
many females. One of the best ways I know of to 
overcome that difficulty is to have two male birds, with 
any number of hens from five to twenty -five, and 
allowing one male bird to run with the females every 
day alternately, a great deal of the risk spoken of 
above will be avoided; but under no consideration 
allow both toms to run with the hens at the same time, 
for as a rule you will generally make a failure. After 
the first of March you will find that the females will 
begin to wander a little way from home, and this is 
about the time they are beginning to look up a place 
to nest. This will generally occur about two weeks 
before they begin to lay. If you wish them to lay 
near by, they can be made to do so, in many cases, 
by supplying nests for them made out of old brush 
or boards placed together alongside a stone wall. The 
females like to hide themselves away when they lay, 
but with ordinary farmers who only have from five 
to ten turkeys, it is a very easy matter to find their 
nests by keeping in a secluded spot and watching the 
hen. Do not let the female see you, for sometimes 
she will not go to her nest for hours. 

In many of the Eastern States where a few j^ears 
ago they raised hundreds of tons of turkeys, they 
now have to import them to meet the demand, as it 
seems almost impossible to raise them. One of the 
main causes for this decline in the raising of turkeys 
is, I think, without a doubt, in-breeding. Farmers, 
as a rule, do not like to invest a few dollars for a male 
bird, and they usually go to Tom Jones, or one of 
their neighbors, and borrow a torn, and this thing has 



been done 
for so many 
years in the 
past that the 
vitality o f 
the turkey 
has about 
run out, and by doing 
this, it has gotten so 
low that it created dis- 
ease, and I really think 
that many of the tur- 
key diseases with which 
we have to contend at 
present have been 
caused by lowering the 
vitality of the turkey, 
as I believe there is no 
other variety of birds 
in which the vital forces decrease so rapidly by in- 
breeding as the turkey. I think it is quite possible, 
under proper management, to raise turkeys in every 
State in the Union, and I believe that if the farmers 
in general will be more careful about not in -breeding 
and will spend a few dollars in order to get a good 
male bird, and thus introduce new and hardy blood 
into their stock, they will be able to raise turkeys. 
I would advise people who have plenty of range for 
their birds to buy a half-wild gobbler. It is almost 
impossible to get a pure wild gobbler in this country 
unless you happen to run across one by accident. 
About all the people who claim to have wild turkeys 
have nothing more than half-breeds; but with these 
you get enough wild blood to make the offspring very 




HEAD OF TURKEY. 



8 



much stronger, and this will be very noticeable the 
first season. 

After the hen -turkey commences laying, probably in 
some sections of the country it will be very cold at 
night, almost to the freezing-point, and, therefore, 
under such conditions, the eggs should be gathered 
every evening and marked with date of getting; then 
they should be placed in a pan filled with bran with 
the little end of the egg down, and then the whole placed 
in a cellar or any cool place, and for two or three days 
afterward they should be turned every day. It would 
well to keep them ten or twelve days, but would not as 
advise keeping them after that time, as perhaps not so 
many of them would hatch. When these eggs are 
taken out of the nest, a glass egg should be placed in 
the nest in order to keep the turkey there, otherwise 
when she comes back to lay and finding no eggs in the 
nest, as a rule she will desert the nest and look up 
another one and lay elsewhere. You will find that a 
good mother will cover her eggs all up with grass, so 
that in looking for the nest it is necessary to be very 
careful, as otherwise you may step into it. An ordi- 
nary turkey -hen will cover eighteen eggs. If she lays 
any more than that number, I take the extra ones and 
put them under a common hen, setting this hen and the 
turkey at the same time. If you are afraid your eggs 
are going to be too old, put the oldest of them under 
the common hen. She may hatch out a week ahead of 
the turkey, but as soon as the turkey -hen hatches out 
her eggs, give all of the poults to her. Be sure there 
are no lice or vermin on the hen when she hatches. It 
is also well, when you transfer the poults from the 
common hen to the turkey -mother, to dust them well 
with insect powder of some kind. It takes twenty- 



nine days to hatch turkey eggs. After the twenty - 
nine days are up, if the turkey does not leave her nest,. 
do not disturb her, because many times she stays on 
the nest twenty -four hours after the young poults are 
hatched. The main reason for this is to give the 

poults time to gain 
strength in their 
legs after hatch - 
ing. One of the 
best ways I know 
of to overcome this 
is to take a little 
stale bread moist- 
ened with milk, put 
it gently near the 
nest, near enough 
that the turkey 
hen may get some- 
thing to eat, and if 

BRONZE TURKEY. the young pou l ts 

are hungry, she will call them out. If she does not 
appear inclined to move, do not disturb her. It is a 
very easy matter to find out whether or not she has 
hatched any poults, for, as a rule, you will find the 
broken egg-shells scattered near the nest. At the 
expiration of thirty days if you see no signs of the 
young turkeys, it is well to investigate the matter by 
raising the turkey off the nest and ascertaining whether 
the eggs are unfertile or not. If they should prove to 
be unfertile, the best way is to shut up the female tur- 
key for four or five days in a coop large enough for her 
to get a little exercise in, give her food and water and 
a place to dust herself in. If this happens early in the 
season, within three or four weeks she will commence 
to lay again. 

10 




One of the best places in which to let the hen -turkey 
run with the poults is a field where the grass is short. 
As a rule a pasture is very good — woodland is very 
suitable. Keep them out of meadows and grain fields 
until after the grain and hay are harvested, because the 
wet vegetation is very bad for the young poults, as it 
chills and sets them back in their growth. 

You will always find the finest and strongest turkeys 
where they are given free range, as much range as 
possible. As a rule they will not wander far from 
home. Under proper management you can place tur- 
keys anywhere on the farm you wish, and by teaching 
them to roost in one particular place, they will come to 
regard this as their home and will know no other, and 
you will always find them wherever they have been 
taught to roost. This can be done -by watching them 
at night for a few times in succession and driving them 
to the place where you want them to stay, and just 
before dark they will go up in the trees or on a roost 
that has been put up. 

With the right kind of breeding stock, turkeys at 
Thanksgiving time should, weigh about as follows : 
Toms, sixteen to twenty pounds; hens, ten to fourteen 
pounds. 

There are two things which have to be done in order 
to have good success in breeding. One of them is that 
you have to get the right kind of breeding stock, 
and the other is to feed them properly. Those are the 
two main things and the only requirements. 

The proper way to feed breeding stock is to be very 
careful and not over -fatten them. Of course all tur- 
keys are fed principally on corn before Thanksgiving 
and Christmas, as many of them are dressed for table 
purposes at that time. As soon as the breeding stock 

11 




A FAMILY OF TURKEYS. 

has been selected, they should be fed on entirely differ- 
ent lines. The principal food from that time up until 
the hen commences to lay should be oats. The best 
way to feed oats is to scald them, but if a person does 
not care to do this, they can be fed on just ordinary 
oats with the hulls on. During the very coldest 
weather in January and February I, perhaps, would 
feed them a little corn at night, but never any in the 
morning, and at night-time feed them no more of it than 
they will eat up cleanly within five or ten minutes 
after giving it to them. Where the turkeys have 
range around a barnyard, a person must be very care- 
ful not to over-fatten them, and, as a rule, it is only 
necessary to feed them at night, and under such con- 
ditions I would feed corn only about three times a 
week, all other feeds to be oats. 

Another food which we think is necessary for tur- 
keys to keep them in good health is ground charcoal, 
but be sure not to have it ground fine, as turkeys will 



12 



eat it better when it is very coarse. On a farm they 
can ordinarily find all the grit that is necessary for 
them to have, but I think the eggs will hatch better if 
the turkeys have oyster shells. These also need to be 
ground coarsely. If the turkey has not enough lime 
to properly supply the egg, the shell will be very 
porous, and many of the germs will die on this account 
The oyster shell should be set around in small boxes 
where the turkeys can get at it handily. 

Under no consideration breed from a diseased tur- 
key. A turkey that you know has been sick, or is 
sick, it is much better to kill than have it running 
with the breeding stock. 

When the gobblers mate with the hens, should they 
be extra heavy and the females extra light, it is well to 
see that the male does not tear the female on her back. 
A very good thing to prevent this is to file down the 
toenails of the male, as many times they will slip off 
the wings and rip the female open. Should you ever 
find a female that has been torn open, for it is very 
easy to discover it by her actions after being tread, or 
more especially the next day, as she will be lame and 
her wings will droop, it is best to catch her at once 
and examine the wound, as most generally they can be 
saved by sewing up the same. This is not a very 
difficult matter to do. One person should hold the 
turkey and another one do the sewing. Pull the 
feathers away from the edges of the wound, and with 
some warm water moisten them so that they will stay 
back while you are putting in the stitches. The wound 
should be washed out thoroughly with witch hazel, 
or should you have none, with warm water. Do this 
with a soft sponge. Then take a long, fine needle 
with silk thread, draw the edges of the skin around 

13 



the wound together over it so that the parts meet as 
they should be. Now commence at one end of the 
wound, gradually draw the edges of the skin together 
over the wound as you stitch until the aperture is all 
closed up. Many times I have taken as many as fifty 
stitches in one wound. Bathe the wound every two or 
three days with witch hazel. It is well to keep this 
particular hen in a pen by herself for two or three 
days. The period of confinement depends entirely on 
the size and nature of the wound, but as a rule after 
two or three days she can be liberated with the rest of 
the flock. 

As a rule many young turkeys are killed by over- 
feeding. On large farms it is not necessary to feed 
more than once a day where the turkeys have plenty 




FEEDING TIME. 

14 



of range. Young turkeys can live on insects and 
many little grasses which they relish. During the 
berry season, especially when wild strawberries are 
ripe, it is a pleasure to watch the little turkeys pick 
and eat them. In seasons when there is a good crop 
of grasshoppers the turkeys will live almost entirely 
on them. Where young turkeys have to be fed, the 
best food I know of is stale bread, but be sure the 
bread is not sour. When speaking of stale bread I 
mean any kind of bread three or four days old. It is 
very nice to moisten this bread with sweet milk, clab- 
bered milk is also very good for the young turkeys. 
Put it in a pan on the ground where they can get at it 
easily. During the very warmest weather of summer 
it is important to keep the turkeys hungry, for if you 
do not there is great danger of their having bowel 
trouble. 

The foregoing is a plan for feeding young turkeys 
where they have free range, but if you are on limited 
range, the best plan I know is to take three boards, 
make a triangular pen fourteen inches high, put the 
young poults inside of it with the mother, and feed 
them there until they are old enough to jump over the 
boards. As a rule after that time it will be all right 
to give them free range. 

Many people think it is necessary to put the hen - 
turkey in a coop to keep her near her young, but this 
is not true, as she will stay by the little ones and it is 
almost impossible to drive her away. Where the 
young poults are confined in a pen as above described, 
it is necessary, when they are young, to feed them four 
times a day with stale bread moistened with milk, and 
give them fresh water or clabbered milk also four times 
a day. It is also very good to give them a little red 

15 




OLD AND YOUNG TURKEYS. 

pepper mixed in with the bread about twice a week, 
as it seems to tone them up a little. Should you find 
that the young turkeys are drooping and do not seem 
to pick up, the very first thing to look for is lice. If 
young turkeys are lousy it is impossible to raise them. 
Hen -turkeys generally keep free from lice, but some 
are the same as human beings, very filthy, and all the 
young poults they will ever have will be lousy, the 
same as the mother. In looking for lice it is best to 
examine the little wings, as generally you will find 
them in the quills, or where the quills should be. 
They can be killed by using Delmation Powder or any 
other good insect powder, by dusting them with it. 
After dusting them with Delmation Powder they will 
loo.k like a little yellow ball, and in two or three days 
will commence to brighten up. I feed them stale 
bread moistened with milk for about four weeks, or 
until the young poults are able to take hard food; 
then, when they have limited range and have to be 
fed, I would feed cracked corn and wheat alternately, 
but both grains should be scalded and not fed to them 
until it has cooled. If your poults should have di- 



16 



arrhea from any cause, usually one feed of boiled rice 
will stop all bowel trouble. Just give them what they 
will eat up cleanly. 

I commence to feed all turkeys the first of October, 
or not later than the middle of October, in getting 
them ready for Thanksgiving or for the markets. They 
should be fed morning and night, but never feed them 
more than they will eat up cleanly. In fact, a great 
deal of trouble is caused sometimes by giving them 
too much to eat. At the time you start to feed them 
you should only give them sparingly for the first week 
or ten days, giving it to them night and murning. 
The principal food from October until the first of De • 
cember will be corn, either whole or cracked. Above 
all things do not feed any new corn. I have seen very 
bad effects result from feeding new corn, and have seen 
large flocks of turkeys knocked out from this cause. 
It gives them diarrhea and they get it into their sys- 
tems and it is very difficult to stop it. Even after you 
have stopped it you have lost so much time in getting 
rid of it that they do not recover for weeks. 

As a rule most of the turkeys will be fat and fit to 
kill at Thanksgiving time, but there may be a few that 
will have to be carried over until Christmas. Many 
people advocate shutting up turkeys, confining them 
in order to fatten them. I have tried this plan and 
found it to be a failure. Many times people can not 
understand why their turkeys are not as fat as they 
should be, but almost invariably you will find that 
they feed them in confinement, and the turkeys could 
not stand it, especially for a long period of several 
weeks. The best way we know of is to give them free 
range, for generally you will find that turkeys will not 
wander far away from the farm buildings in the fall 

17 



when the weather becomes cool. They will eat their 
morning's feed and most of the time during the cold 
winter will lie down in a warm place and sun them- 
selves. If the turkeys are shut up about five days 
before the time you wish to dress them, I think they 
will be in the best possible condition. 

A great many people think turkeys need to have 
shelter in the way of a building. That idea is entirely 
wrong. The best possible way of keeping turkeys in 
good health is to have them roost away from buildings, 
perhaps in trees or in a place sheltered from the winds. 
I have known turkeys to sit out in trees with the ther- 
mometer fifteen to twenty degrees below zero and be 
much healthier than turkeys that were inside a building. 
The only thing about it is this : A turkey can stand 
any kind of cold weather if they are roosting in a lee 
place where the wind does not blow too hard so that 
they can keep their heads under their wings. I have 
seen turkeys in trees outside in a snow and rain storm 
with the wind blowing at the rate of forty miles an 
hour, and the colder it got the higher up they would 
want to go, instead of wanting to come down. 

NOTES. 

The ordinary turkey of a few years ago, as bred by 
the average farmer, would weigh about as follows : 
Toms, about twenty pounds; hens, about six pounds. 
The standard turkey now weighs : Young toms, eight 
months old, twenty-four pounds; hens, ten pounds. 
Where an old-fashioned turkey weighed eight pounds, 
the modern turkey now weighs twenty pounds. One 
of the largest of the old -fashioned toms weighed 
twenty to twenty-two pounds, but the standard torn 
of to-day weighs thirty -five pounds or more. 



18 



Understand, as a rule, a hen -turkey will never want 
to be served but once. 

White Holland Turkeys can stand confinement much 
better than the Bronze, and will endure it almost as 
well as a hen. They will lay about the same number 
of eggs as the Bronze. 

The Narragansett is a very nice turkey, but no better 
than the Bronze; in fact, not so good, because they 
are not so large and not quite so nicely shaped. But 
the Narragansetts are next to the Bronze in general 
utility. 

There are the Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, 
Black, Buff, and Slate Turkeys, The Buff and Slate 
Turkeys are, for practical purposes, no good, and are 
only kept as a matter of fancy for their color and are 
very small and inferior to either of the other varieties. 
The only turkeys which are fit to breed are the Bronze, 
Narragansetts, and White Hollands, simply because 
the others are too small. The Narragansetts are 
almost extinct, as there are but very few of them bred. 
The White Hollands are the gentlest of the three 
varieties by far. 




19 



CA.4f„Cv 




be 

o 
Eh 

P 



Details of Turkey Growing. 



The question to be or -not to be a successful turkey 
raiser is now before us. I got my first turkey eggs 
the 5th of April this year, last year the last day of 
March, in 1898 the 6th of April, and in 1897 the 8th of 
April. In this latitude within a few days of April 1 is 
as soon as we can look for any eggs. I am getting let- 
ters of inquiry asking for my way of feeding and car- 
ing for young turkeys. 

YARDING THE OLD BIRDS. 

The first step to success, I have found by actual ex- 
perience, is to yard my turkeys. Any grass plot fenced 
in by a three-foot wire netting, with barbed wire above 
to make a fence four or five feet high, will do. I have 
found a three-acre orchard fenced makes a turkey para- 
dise. A row of willows around the outside -makes an 
ideal place for nests. The dry leaves make just the 
kind of nest material, and it is much easier hunting 
nests in an acre field or three acres than following the 
old-fashioned way of letting the turkeys roam without 
restraint over your own and your neighbor's fields, 
calling down on your unfortunate head blessings ga- 
lore. And, by the way, these same blessings proved a 
lasting help to me. As we had a neighbor whom the 
sight of a turkey would throw into a spasm, and to 
avoid the wrath to come, I adopted the plan of yarding 
and civilizing my turkeys. This proves how what may 
seem to be your undoing may be a blessing in disguise. 

The next thing after the turkeys are yarded is to 
control these flights of fancy to be outside when you 
want them to be inside. We began with yard No. 1 
and cut the flight feathers on the right wing. Going to 
No. 2 yard we cut their wing feathers on their left wing. 
That makes the two yards marked, so if one gets out we 
can easily tell where they belong and drive them back. 
Now No. 3 yard must be marked differently, and as we 
only have a picket fence we shingle them the same as 
people do with unruly boys. I take a shingle or a very 

21 



thin piece of board, and make four holes just to fit the 
wings. Across the back pass a stout string of cloth, 
through one hole and down around the wing, putting 
it up through the other and tying securely on top. This 
made fast in this way prevents their raising their wings 
up to fly. They will turn, somersaults and stand on 
their head for a while, but, like unruly people, they soon 
learn to accept the inevitable and realize that the hu- 
man race with their two hands are a wee bit smarter 
than the lordly turkey. 

HATCHING-TIME, AND FEEDING AND CARING 
FOR YOUNG. 

Now when we have got things in ship shape order 
the question of hatching and care of the poults is the 
absorbing thought. I set about two chicken hens and 
one turkey hen, or put turkey eggs with duck eggs 
in the incubator and give the turkey the poults to raise. 
I leave the turkey undisturbed until I see that she be- 
gins to get nervous about coming off, then I take the 
little poults in a well-warmed basket to the kitchen 
stove and take madam turkey to my louse box, that is 
painted with a lice killer, diluted a little. I shut her 
in here for an hour or more. I have a large square dry- 
goods box, with a square door sawed out, with a lath 
door made to fit in. T make a pen around the coop of 
foot- wide boards. Instead of a floor to the coop I put 
in dry straw and as soon as I turn the poults out I put 
in clean straw every day. I only keep them cooped 
three or four days if the weather is good and warm; 
then I turn them out when the dew is off and let them 
run until between 4 and 5 o'clock, when I hunt them up 
and drive them in and feed for the night. At first it is 
quite a bother to find them at night, but after the little 
ones learn that they get their supper when you shut 
them up they will come at your call. 

After the ground is dry and warm I move the coops 
every day instead of putting in dry straw. I forgot to 
say that before I give the little poults to the hen I 
grease their heads a little and dust them with Lam- 
bert's Death to Lice. I go over them once a week for 

22 



lice until they get so large it is impossible to handle 
them. This is when they are six weeks or two months 
old. We then drive them to the field in the morning 
and go after them, as we do the cows. In a week or 
two they will come up themselves. I put fresh-laid 
eggs in cold water and let them boil one-half an hour 
or more, and chop them up, shell and all. This is their 
first food, with a little fine grit sifted in. After a day 
or two I chop dandelion leaves with the eggs for their 
breakfast, with a little curd made of sour milk for their 
dinner. Onion tops and egg and curd make their sup- 
per. I mix a little fine grit in every morning in their 
food and as they grow older give grit a little coarser. 
This feed, with oatmeal and millet seed, makes up their 
bill of fare until they are driven to the field and told to 
help themselves to what they like best. 

In two years I have lost only three turkeys by being 
sick when little. I have tried feeding johnny cake and 
cornmeal in different ways and always lost my tur- 
keys. I think cornmeal in any form is too hearty for 
little poults. I keep them a little hungry, feeding only 
three times a day what they will eat up clean in a short 
time. A great many people do not look for lice be- 
tween the quill feathers of the wing, and there is just 
where the lice set up housekeeping. 

ENCLOSE THE BREEDERS. 

Turkeys have been raised longer than the memory 
of those now living can trace, and still the business is 
in its infancy. People are realizing each year that it is 
one of the most profitable crops of poultry that can be 
raised on a farm from a market standpoint. From the 
fanciers' outlook they are making such great strides 
in size, weight and plumage, and command such high 
prices, that they are doubly profitable. 

I raise many turkeys, and like the business, and I at- 
tribute much of my success to keeping my turkeys 
yarded through the breeding season. People generally 
think it a great expense to build a fence that will keep 
turkeys in, though I do not find it so. A three-foot 
woven-wire fence with barbed wire above to make the 

23 



fence four or five feet high, will keep them confined if 
the flight feathers of one wing are cut. I keep the 
young turkeys yarded in the same yard until they are 
six weeks or two months old, which makes it conven- 
ient to protect the young poults from the wet, and I 
can look over them once a week for lice, and never have 
to be hunting up my turkeys. 

Turkeys like a large range as they grow older, but 
while young, one to three acres make plenty of range. 
You will soon find out when they get dissatisfied with 
their quarters, as they will crawl out or fly into your 
garden or yard, showing that they are anxious to start 
on their foraging expeditions. If the hay and oats are 
cut so that they can get around without tramping 
things down, or finding too much to hide in, we turn 
them out in the field in the morning and bring them in 
at night until they learn to come in themselves. 

SUPPLY GRIT AND DON'T OVERFEED. 

I find if young turkeys are properly fed and kept per- 
fectly clean and free from lice they have very few dis- 
eases. Exercise they must have, but very young tur- 
keys can have sufficient exercise on an acre or two. and 
a great many young turkeys can be saved by enjoying 
this exercise under your control. 

I give a little sharp grit in their feed every morning. 
I use grit and oyster shell, the larger part grit, as tur- 
keys to be healthy must have it. I have lost hundreds 
of turkej T s I know by not having plenty of grit with 
wnich to grind their food. If they get a little sharp grit 
in their food every morning it keeps their grinding ap- 
paratus in perfect order. Very young turkeys do not 
find the grit of their own accord, and as they grow 
older they are liable to gorge themselves with the grit 
as soon as they discover its use, thereby clogging their 
digestive organs, while a small quantity in their food 
each morning keeps them in excellent condition. 

Overfeeding is another cause of loss in young tur- 
keys. I feed only three times a day for the good reason 
that I could not possibly find time to feed oftener with 
the large number I raise. I find it sufficient. They take 

24 



more exercise if fed less; then when they are fed they 
are hungry. The time between feeding, too, allows the 
food to digest and gives the digestion a little rest. 

WATCH CLOSELY FOR LICE. 

Turkeys are making very rapid growth, and I find 
the lice are making rapid growth, too. When I take the 
old turkey off the nest I paint a box with lice killer, put 
her in and leave her for two hours. I do not shut her in 
an air-tight compartment, only close enough for the lice 
killer to thoroughly fumigate her feathers. This kills 
all the lice and nits. I grease the heads of the little 
turkeys to destroy the large head lice; I also dust them 
thoroughly with Lambert's Death to Lice and paint 
their coops with Carbolineum, but with all the precau- 
tions I find I must look over them once a week for lice. 

GREEN FOOD FOR GROWTH. 

I feed more green food than most people do, as I find 
it has the same effect on turkeys that it has on ducks. 
It produces a large frame. I chop dandelion leaves for 
them in the morning, and at night chop up onions, tops 
and all. I notice there is never a scrap of the green 
food left when they are through eating. They make 
rapid growth when fed this way, besides it is a cheap 
way to feed them. One of the most essential things 
during July is to keep the turkeys free from lice. There 
is considerable work again getting them started to run 
out on the range and come home at night. If you allow 
them to run at large and stay out at night, they will 
wander away to neighbors and sometimes go miles from 
home; but if they are driven home nightly for a week 
or two they will soon come home of their own accord, 
and then your work in the turkey yard is nearly over, 
as they can take care of themselves, only you must 
watch that they do not forget to come home. 

RAISE MORE TURKEYS. 

I hope to hear of a large crop of turkeys being raised 
this year to help supply the demand for meat and to 
furnish breeding stock, for a great many farmers who 

25 



do not now raise turkeys. If I can in any way encour- 
age and help along this great and growing industry it 
will be a great pleasure for me to do so. 

POULTS EASIER TO RAISE THAN CHICKS. 

The turkey has been basely slandered and has been 
considered to be about as stupid as a mule. I have 
never had any experience in trying to teach a mule to 
keep his hind feet on the ground when his best friend 
stood behind him, but I have taught turkeys to respect 
my wishes and stay on one plantation. People ask me 
if they are not hard to raise. I raise a larger per cent 
of those hatched than I do of chickens. For the last 
two years I have raised over 95 per cent of all turkeys 
hatched. 

FIFTY ENOUGH IN ONE YARD. 

I have found that 50 turkeys in a yard or field are 
enough to do well. If you keep more than that together 
they are apt to pile in together and smother after they 
are about a month old. When I get a flock of fifty, I 
start another drove in another field. I set four or five 
turkey hens and at the same time give to chicken hens 
as many turkey eggs as I think the turkeys can take 
care of. If possible, I set an incubator with chicken 
eggs. When they all hatch I give the turkeys all the 
poults and the chicken hens all the incubator chicks, 
and that makes business lively all around, myself in- 
cluded. Women in the poultry business have very little 
time for social duties, and the pink and spider-web teas 
that are so much the fad in fashionable society have 
to be given in the chicken yard. The turkeys and 
chickens do not ask the color of their teas, so they get 
their supper on time. (And if you expect to succeed 
you have to give them their supper on time and attend 
to all the details of the business on time.) 

NOT MORE CONFINING THAN OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 

I have my little poults so they will fly over a board 
a foot high when but a week old. There are more 
turkeys killed by overfeeding and lice and want of grit 
than all other things combined. If you do not keep 

26 



them near the house so that you can run them under 
cover when a heavy storm comes up, you are liable to 
lose a large per cent. I find a large shed with a board 
floor is fine to run them in in case of sudden storms. 
Of course, you must stay close at home to meet all 
these emergencies. It is not more confining than other 
occupations. The merchant, lawyer, doctor, mechanic 
and farmer have to confine themselves closely to busi- 
ness, and the poultry raiser, whether for fancy or mar- 
ket, must make a business and work on business prin- 
ciples. 

NOT TO BE LEARNED IN A DAY OR A YEAR. 

I raise from three different flocks of turkeys, ten hens 
and one torn in each flock. We have from one acre to 
three acres fenced in with a three-foot wire netting 
three inches apart, with barbed wire at the top, mak- 
ing the fence five feet high. Turkeys will never try 
to fly over a barbed wire fence. They will crawl under 
it and crowd through it if the wires are not close to- 
gether, but they never try flying over it. If they ever 
attempt it they are almost sure to run a barb through 
their foot, and one experience of that kind is generally 
enough. I have had them caught that way and hang 
until dead. I use the breeding yards for the young 
turkej^s until they are large enough to drive out on the 
range, putting fifty in each yard. At six weeks or two 
months they are driven on to their summer range, driv- 
ing them home at night until they have learned the 
trick of coming home to roost. I did not learn in a day 
or in a year the art of raising nearly all the turkeys 
hatched, not until T had lost hundreds each year, I act- 
ing as pallbearer and chief mourner, and I assure you I 
filled the position of mourner admirably, weeping co- 
piously over buried hopes, and those hopes were of a 
well-filled purse. 

1 hope I shall not have to meet those turkeys in the 
next world and be held accountable for my unpardon- 
able ignorance, but perhaps by sincerely repentiug my 
past mistakes the sin of ignorance will be forgiven me. 

27 



OVERFEEDING CAUSES DEATH. 

A lady writes me that her turkeys are dying. Upon 
inquiring into the symptoms and the way she feeds 
I am of the opinion that she is killing her turkeys with 
kindness by overfeeding. She feeds them five or six 
times a day. A turkey in a state of nature picks up its 
feed, a bug or grasshopper at a time, and never gorges 
itself with food, as it is liable to do when we feed the 
flock. A duck can be fed all it will eat and as often as 
it will eat, but if you feed a turkey the same w T ay you 
are sure to have trouble. A turkey is a voracious eater 
and will eat as often as you feed it. I can only get time 
to feed my turkeys three times a day, and as they nearly 
all live and make rapid growth I think that is all that 
is necessary. 

A neighbor told me that her turkeys were dying, and 
I sent her word to come and get some Mica Crystal 
Grit and give them, as I knew she w r as not giving them 
any grit. I advised her to put a little in the food every 
morning. She did so and her turkeys are no longer 
dying. It was the absence of sharp grit that caused 
them to die. 

BREEDING FROM WEAKENED STOCK. 

Another lady writes to tell me that her turkeys w r ere 
out in a heavy rain and caught cold. They now have 
roup, or something very like it. She lost about 160 last 
year with the same disease. I think she w T ould do well 
to dispose of her stock of turkeys, as they are undoubt- 
edly predisposed to roup, either from a weakened con- 
stitution, or it has been inherited by breeding from 
roupy stock. I think an outward application of Mus- 
tang Liniment would be the best outward application. 
I have ceased trying remedies of all kinds, as I believe 
many of them kill more than they cure. When I find 
a remedy that is good I. use it. 

The work for August in the turkey yard is very light 
as the turkeys are, or should be, out on the range on 
farms. I only feed them a little in the morning so that 
they may be induced to run out in search of food, and a 
little at night to get them to come home. I am un- 

28 



usually late this year about getting my turkeys started 
out, as oats have ripened later than usual on account of 
light rains that have kept them growing, and I can not 
let them into the hay field until the oats are cut, as I do 
not want them running through the oats. After they 
have started out, all I have to do is to bring them home 
at night and keep on the watch for lice. They go 
through a corn field, and I have noticed the old turkey 
and young ones stop and wallow in the loose dirt to 
dust themselves, so I hardly ever have much trouble 
with lice when they are out on the range. 

YARDING TURKEYS. 

Several persons have written about the way I yard 
turkeys, saying the idea of keeping turkeys yarded 
through the breeding season is something new. One 
gentleman says he will keep turkeys if he can succeed 
in keeping them yarded on four acres. That would be 
ample room for a good flock to breed from, and plenty 
of room for a flock of young turkeys to run on for six 
weeks or two months. 

T think there will be more turkeys raised in the fu- 
ture, as they are most profitable poultry, and when sold 
on the market for Thanksgiving Day cost little to raise, 
besides being a benefit to the farmer in eating insects 
and weed seeds. 

EATE-HATCHED TURKEYS. 

The first of July generally ends the turkey egg busi- 
ness. Occasionally turkeys lay a third clutch of eggs 
after that time, but I never consider them of much 
value, as they do not hatch well and the young turkeys 
never grow very large. I remember one exception to 
that rule. I had a brood of young turkeys come off 
about the first of August, and a pullet from that flock 
weighed sixteen pounds on the 10th of December. I 
took first premium with her at Dixon, 111., before the 
weight was raised in the Standard. That was one 
pound above Standard weight on a pullet ten days ove" 
four months old. 



29 



RAISING ONE FAMILY, HATCHING ANOTHER. 

I have now a peculiar freak. A turkey by some 
means had gotten out of my breeding yard and stolen 
her nest, I think on or near the railroad track. When 
we first saw her she had four turkeys larger than quail. 
We could do nothing with her, and decided to let her 
run. I had the misfortune to have nine turkeys killed 
by the cars, and as she disappeared about that time we 
supposed she and her little turkeys were among them. 
One day as 1 went along the track to find if my turkeys 
had strayed there again, I found her sitting on ten eggs 
and still caring for her first flock, hovering them at 
night. Later we often saw her come near the building 
for water for her first brood, so we thought it best to 
keep w r ater near her. She will hatch this week, and I 
am curious to know how she will manage two families 
of children. 

The railroad runs the entire length of our place. We 
have it fenced part of the way turkey tight. Our loss 
this year has decided us to fence the entire length 
turkey tight. We have always intended to fence it, but 
this year the turkeys have behaved well. The ex- 
tremely hot weather, however, and the lack of water 
in the creeks, have made them rove in different direc- 
tions, and this proves a turkey has a memory, as they 
persist in going where they found water last year. We 
now keep water in the field where we want them to run 
and have much less trouble. x 

RAIN, COEDS, ROUP. 

I am getting letters from all parts of the country tell- 
ing of good hatches, although many have lost a large 
proportion of those hatched. One lady hatched about 
three hundred, and her turkeys were caught out in a 
rain, got a good soaking, caught cold, and roup set in. 
I think, perhaps, if she had given them at once a warm 
feed with plenty of cayenne or black pepper they would 
have come out all right. After my turkeys were as big 
as prairie chickens they got a good many wettings that 
did not hurt them in the least. My turkevs have been 



30 



so healthy, every feather just as straight and smooth 
as could be. The first thing every one says is, "How 
healthy your turkeys look." The only road to success 
with turkeys is to keep them healthy. Give them plenty 
of exercise, commencing to let them run through the 
middle of the day at three or four days old; keep the 
lice off, and give a little grit in their food every morn- 
ing, with good, clean water to drink. Coop at night un- 
til they begin to want to roost. 

I could not turn my turkeys out on the range this 
year until they were two months old, and they were so 
anxious to get out that I had to let them go. The oats 
were late, it being after the 15th of July that they were 
cut, and the men had to drive the turkeys out of them 
to prevent running over them, and one got killed as it 
was. 

DIARRHEA AND LICE. 

A lady wrote that she hatched sixty-six little tur- 
keys and had only ten left. Her turkeys had a diarrhea, 
a thin, yellowish discharge. This might be from lack 
of grit. She said she greased them once a week for 
lice. Too much grease will kill turkeys. I only grease 
their heads a little for the large head-lice, and dust 
them with Lambert's Death to Lice. Most of the lice 
will be found between the quill feathers below the 
vent, and on large turkeys on the thighs. 

EVILS FROM LACK OF EXERCISE. 

I learned something about exercise for very young 
turkeys this year. I hatched some under hens quite 
early; it was wet and cold, and of the two evils I de- 
cided I would not turn them out to run through the 
day, so I kept them cooped a week or more. When I 
went to feed them I found one that did not seem to 
have the use of its left side. I thought it had got hurt 
in some way and would soon be all right. It got no bet- 
ter, and I still kept them cooped, as it was so cold and 
wet; then another got that way. They would push 
themselves around with their right foot as they lay on 
their left side. When the third one was taken sick I 

31 



decided it was paralysis of the left side, brought 
on by lack of exercise, and so I turned them 
out. Those that had been affected died. It was 
still cold and wet when my other turkeys began to 
hatch, and I kept the first lot of chicks cooped perhaps 
five days, when one of them acted in the same way as 
the early hatched birds. I turned them out to run 
through the day, and that was the last of it. This con- 
vinced me that it was paralysis brought on by lack of 
exercise. The peculiar part of it was that it was always 
the left side affected. My turkeys are making rapid 
growth out on the range. I feed them a little grain 
when they come up at night, and we have such quanti- 
ties of apples that I put the small ones in a box and 
chop them up with the spade and feed them to all the 
poultry, and they do enjoy the cool juice these hot, dry 
days, and the apples keep them in such good health 
and are so much better for them than all green or even 
all grasshoppers. 

Mrs. Charles Jones. 



Essentials in Turkey Raising. 



A prominent surgeon once said that there- were three 
essentials in the successful practice of surgery. The 
first was patience, the second was patience, and the 
third was patience. Verily, this applies to poultry- 
raising in all its branches, and I think is particularly 
applicable to turkey culture. 

MARKING THE POULTS. 

The youngsters are now big enough to mark, and I 
prefer a dab of red or yellow paint on the wings to any- 
thing else. Leg bands are all right if your birds stay 
at home and you want to distinguish the blooded from 
the common stock; but they can too easily be removed. 
Then, too, if you see a flock of birds together, a glance 
shows if your fowls are along. Just in front of our 
house stretches what was supposed to be a wheat field 
of forty acres. Into this one of my turkey hens went 

32 



the other day with her flock of ten and came home with 
sixteen. Grain is a failure in this section this year, and 
has been for three years. Some of our farmers did not 
cut the wheat, w T hile others cut with the mower. The 
ants have eaten out the corn crop, so feed will likely 
be very dear this winter. In the last two years the 
farming element, or rather the male part of it, have 
awakened to the fact that had it not been for their 
chickens and turkeys many of the actual necessities 
would have been gone without. 

JUDGING THE STOCK. 

Now as to judging your stock. The weight of a full- 
grown Bronze torn should be thirty-six pounds, hen 
twenty, cockerel twenty -five, pullet sixteen. Of course, 
any deformity, such as crooked feet, beak, breast bnne, 
or wry tail, disqualifies the bird for show. Altogether 
white or black feathers or the absence of grey bars on 
wings counts you out. The beautiful bronze sheen 
should be prominent in male, but does not show so bril- 
liantly in female. The weight of the White Holland is, 
cock twenty-six, hen sixteen, cockerel sixteen, pullet 
ten. Besides being snowy white, these birds should 
have pink legs and feet. Believing these two varieties 
to be bred the most extensively, I will not give other 
standard, but any one wishing same can obtain it for 
the asking and a stamp. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF VARIETIES. 

Personally, I think if one must allow his birds to 
roam on others' property that he should breed some- 
thing different from his neighbors. The Bronze is the 
heaviest bird, and is what I breed. The White Holland 
turkeys are said to be non-roamers. but my observation 
of a neighbor's proves that they wander as much as any 
other fowl that has to make its own living. To be sure, 
theblacks are sports from the wild turkey, consequently 
are very shy, although they are hardy if not kept in con- 
finement. In parts of Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky a 
red turkey is bred, from which, I think, has sprung the 
buff turkey. Let me impress on you not to over-feed 

33 



the young stock while the hot weather is on; also see 

that they have plenty of clean water to drink. This 

latter will keep them at home when nothing else will. 
******** 

Now is the season when the turkeys are beginning 
to stay around the buildings to be fed instead of wan- 
dering away and foraging. Begin gradually, then feed 
them all they will eat, unless the weather be very 
warm, when there is danger of over-feeding. Should 
any birds develop bowel complaint, remove all drinking 
water and substitute a dish containing this drink : One- 
quarter ounce of copperas to a quart of water. They at 
first refuse it, but as the fever will be high they will 
find themselves compelled to drink. 

SHIPPING DRESSED TURKEYS. 

In shipping dressed poultry there are some essen- 
tials to be considered. The prospective city buyer may 
not know a dry picked fowl from the scalded one, but 
the commission merchant does. Now, the fowl should 
be killed by inserting a knife in the roof of the mouth, 
thereby penetrating the brain. Hang the bird up by 
the feet to bleed out. When this has stopped, dip 
hastily in hot water, then at once in cold water and 
pick. This process hardens the flesh and makes them 
easy to pick. The packing boxes should be lined with 
white paper and fowls laid in, alternating head and 
feet; that is, if ten birds constitute a row, have five 
heads point one way and five the other. In this way 
they fit snugly. Some dealers like a ruffle of paper 
added at the knee. Lay a piece of paper over this layer 
and proceed to fill up the box, not crowding, but fitting 
snugly. The best paper to use can be obtained very 
cheaply at any newspaper office, and is such as is used 
in printing. This paper is absorbent also. This may 
sound like a good deal of bother, but will repay you 
many times over. Then, too, you will always find the 
commission men want your stock. Boxes are to be pre- 
ferred to barrels because the goods can be displayed to 
better advantage. This method of packing holds good 
in all kinds of poultry. 

35 



METHOD OF COOKING TURKEYS. 

The turkey is called king of birds, yet how often we 
find them poorly served. In cooking allow twenty min- 
utes to the pound and thirty minutes 1 grace. Then if 
the bird is not three or four years old it will be done 
to a turn. The addition of hickory-nut kernels to the 
filling is a great improvement. They cook so soft you 
cannot tell them from the crumbs. Many cooks spoil a 
beautifully cooked fowl with a dry filling. Moisten the 
crumbs with cold water and allow two teaspoons bak- 
ing powder to every quart of crumbs. 

******** 

Many times one sees in the poultry papers inquiries 
as to how much damage a stray bird can do a pen in a 
short while. We have had an experience along that 
line that might interest some, so will give it. Our torn 
met with an accident that incapacitated him for service 
just as the hens were about to lay the third "clutch" of 
eggs. I was desirous of some late hatched stock, but 
decided it was out of the question. The particular hen 
I wanted to breed from had laid five eggs, when a neigh- 
boring farmer came in and told us to come and get his 
torn. He was brought, and stayed one night, then went 
home. The result of his visit is eight little poults. 
Some of the papers are telling just now how a man in 
the West hires out a flock of a thousand turkeys to 
catch his neighbors' grasshoppers and is coining money. 
Maybe it is true, but if it is, his neighbors are different 
from mine. 

CONTAMINATED STOCK SHOULD BE EXCLUDED 
FROM THE MARKETS. 

The poultry organizations are advancing in so many 
ways that it seems queer to me that no effort is made 
to exclude contaminated stock from the markets. I 
have particular reference to roup. We buy a fowl ap- 
parently in health, and with wet weather it develops 
roup. We wrestle with the disgusting disease and may 
think we have cured it, but that bird's progeny will in- 
herit it and before we realize what has happened our 

36 



whole flock is polluted. It is claimed by some that 
roup in fowls is the same as diphtheria in the human 
system; also that a diseased fowl will produce that 
disease in people if eaten. I think cold steel the best 
cure, but if your birds appear to have only a cold, house 
them tightly and throw crude carbolic acid on live 
coals, then make your exit as speedily as possible. This 
will produce a dense smoke and cause the birds to al- 
most sneeze their heads off, but will cure the cold, be- 
sides acting as a disinfectant to the house. 

EXPRESS COMPANIES' RATES. 

Express companies now make a difference between 
market and breeding fowls insomuch that expressage 
is quite an item. The birds are supposed to get better 
care in transportation, but you will note that the par- 
ticular expressman who waters and feeds them en 
route asks a small fee. I have never had this happen 
to me, but we have shipped stock that was fed and 
watered on the way; then the agent asked 10 cents for 
his service. I should just refuse point blank to pay it. 
The company is obliged to hold packages twenty-four 
hours, and in that time look after them, so_ there is 
no occasion for charge, be it ever so small. 



PREVENTIVES AND REMEDIES FOR SICKNESS. 

At this season of the year the turkey toms are liable 
to fall sick, so will give some preventives. To begin 
with, when the first mild days of spring come their 
corn allowance should be curtailed, as that and the 
breeding season are almost sure to cause sickness. 
However, if this has been neglected, we must try and 
prevent the trouble. 

The first symptom you will notice is a white diar- 
rhea and a tendency to sleep. Sometimes they will 
not come off the roost. Make them come down and 
give pills of Venetian red, held together with raw egg. 
It will take two people to do this, one to hold the bird 
and the other to handle the piMs. Make them as thick 
and long as your thumb and give six, morning and 

37 



night, for three or four days. This, with a little alum 
or turpentine in the drinking water, will be sufficient 
if you do not let the disease get a start. If the bird 
has been ailing a day or two, add a two-grain quinine 
pill to the other preparation morning and night and 
feed only wheat for a few days. We have seen a thirty- 
three-pound torn that had been pulled down to twelve 
pounds by the discharge, pulled through by this 
method. He had lost all interest in life, so the lice de- 
cided to hold a convention on his poor, bony carcass. 
Little red fellows, long yellow ones, and the big, hairy 
old stagers, were there. He was painted with alcohol 
in which fish berries had been soaked. This not only 
kills the lice, but all nits and eggs, and can also be used 
to adA r antage on a person's head when they happen to 
become infested. But in using this bear in mind that 
it is deadly poison and should be handled with care. 
It leaves no injurious effects and can be used freely, as 
the alcohol soon evaporates. 

The little poults that have lived until six weeks will 
now have another battle for life. This is the season 
when the head turns red, and is called "pushing the 
red." 

FRESH WATER AND CLEAN FOUNTAINS. 

See that their drinking vessels are kept clean and 
supplied with fresh water, and above all do not over- 
feed, but rather keep them hungry until eight or ten 
weeks of age. 

Thinking to introduce some new blood into my flock, 
I sent to Indiana for eggs. They hatched fairly well, 
but those little Western turkeys were as wild as quail, 
and even now, while they run to meet me, they do not 
want to be touched. My own birds climb right into my 
lap to see what there is to eat. This wildness annoys 
me, for there is no reason on earth why chickens and 
turkeys should not both be tame and docile. 

Last Sunday morning one of our hens that has been 
spoiling for a fight for some time attempted to whip 
another hen with ten little poults. The fight began by 
the instigator saying something to the mother turk, 

38 



and in the twinkling of an eye every little poult disap- 
peared. We put a stop to the fight, but from all 
indications there is more trouble brewing. I know of 
no way to stop a belligerent turkey hen, for they carry 
resentment a long time. 

Maude Von Plees. 



Feeding the Growing Turkeys. 



A writer, whose letter is given below, requests in- 
formation regarding growing turkeys, and suggests a 
certain combination of food. It is the various mixtures 
of foods to which we desire to call attention, for which 
reason we present his letter, which reads as follows: 

"I would like to ask a question in regard to feeding 
young turkeys; as we have sixty-four now, and will 
probably have 100 soon. We (my wife and myself) 
would like to keep them in good growing condition. 

"How would one part of oil cake or linseed meal and 
three parts of wheat bran do? And after what age? 
The turkeys have plenty of range, and we raised forty- 
two last year, but did not feed the above." 

The writer of this letter gives his reason for wish- 
ing to change his method of feeding — he wishes to 
force the turkeys in growth. 

After a young turkey "shoots the red," and is past 
the danger stage, it becomes a hardy bird. Naturally 
the turkey seeks its food over a wide area, and in so do- 
ing secures a variety. It will accept seeds, tender 
grass, and all kinds of insects. Even the green worm 
which is found on the tobacco and tomato plants will 
be acceptable, while grasshoppers provide a feast. The 
foods secured by turkeys are both carbonaceous and ni- 
trogenous; it consists also of animal and vegetable 
matter, with a proportion of mineral constituents. 

If the turkey is in a limestone section, or the range 
provides an abundance, it will procure more food dur- 
ing the day than may be supposed; that is, the crop 
will either be filled several times during the day, or the 
food sufficient for filling the crop several times will be 

39 



digested as fast as eaten. If food is provided by the 
owner it should be simply to induce the turkeys to 
come up at night in expectation of the reward. 

BONK AND MUSCLE-PRODUCING FOODS. 

Our correspondent suggests one part of linseed meal 
and three parts bran. He has not tested these foods 
for the purpose, and that is why he deemed it best to 
write. We understand his motive — he wishes to feed 
for bone and muscle. Asi he states, he wants growth, 
for he can put fat on the turkeys later. 

Let us examine the selected foods and their value. 
Linseed meal contains nearly 6 per cent of mineral ele- 
ments (bone-making material), or 120 pounds per ton. 
Also 33 per cent of protein (muscle-producing mate- 
rial) and 39 per cent of fat-forming elements. Bran 
contains 5 per cent of mineral matter, 16 per cent of 
protein and 53 per cent of fat and heat producers. 

These foods are harmless and will be beneficial to 
turkeys three months old and over. Give them a full 
meal at night, but the proportions of linseed meal 
should be one to ten of bran at first, gradually increas- 
ing the proportion of linseed until in six weeks it is 
one to four. Linseed meal is laxative, and may not 
prove beneficial if given in very large quantities at the 
beginning. 

Cottonseed meal is not so wholesome, for the reason 
that the cotton ball is not fully matured when picked 
<*nd the seed is not as advanced as that of flax at the 
time of harvesting. 

PROPORTION OF HEAT-PRODUCING TO FLESH- 
FORMING FOODS. 

The food may be given at night on clean boards. It 
is somewhat oily and sticky, but the bran serves to 
divide it. All linseed products used for food are ready 
cooked, and the new process linseed meal contains less 
oil than the old process product. 

In making up foods one may give from three to six 
times as much of the heat producers as of flesh form- 
ers, according to circumstances. It should be remem- 

40 



bered that one pound of fat is equivalent to two and a 
half pounds of starch. Mineral matter contains a large 
proportion of lime. Beans, clover, peas and the gluten 
meals are rich in protein. 

A young turkey does not readily fatten until nearly 
matured, the food being converted into bone and mus- 
cle. It makes the frame first and takes on the muscle 
"and fat afterwards. Bone and muscle-producing foods 
are consequently excellent for young turkeys. 



Unsuccessful Turkey Breeding. 



"We have been surprised to find how great a propor- 
tion of those who attempt to raise turkeys use small 
and immature birds for breeders. Many kill their ear- 
liest and best birds for the market and keep for breed- 
ing those that are too small or too late to be salable. 
They kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. In buy- 
ing a new gobbler or a few hens to change the blood 
they choose late-hatched, immature turkeys because 
they cost less. The reason sometimes given for this is 
that old hens are too cunning about stealing their nests 
and that young turkeys lay earlier. This practice is not 
confined to the poorest and least intelligent people, as 
would be expected, but is followed by those well in- 
formed and who appreciate' and pay for a well-bred 
horse or cow. If such a course was followed with 
horses and cattle the best stock in existence would be 
ruined in a few generations. Many who know that tur- 
keys two years old or older give the strongest and 
largest young continue to kill off the young hens for 
market after breeding from them one season. There 
seems to be a dread of having something too old or un- 
salable left on their hands. To breed from immature or 
poor specimens is to violate one of the first laws of 
breeding. Selection of the best for generations has 
given us the improved and most profitable breeds of 
stock. The hereditary influence of such selection is of 
great value. The most inferior bird out of a flock of 
such blood may 'throw back' and breed very fine stock 

41 



and do better than a much finer specimen from a poorly 
bred strain, but the repeated selection of inferior birds 
for a number of generations makes this inferiority he- 
reditary. 

FREQUENT CAUSES OF LACK OF SUCCESS MAY BE 
TRACED TO THE PARENT STOCK. 

"The future stock depends almost entirely on the 
parent birds or their ancestry. If valuable birds are 
used for breeding their offspring will be like them and 
amply repay the extra expense. The best are none too 
good and are the cheapest. 

"Crandall Brothers, having used Western gobblers 
furnished by Mr. Vose, raised so many more turkeys 
in consequence that they estimate the benefit derived 
the first season at $ 100. It would have been economy 
for them to have paid f 50 for the two gobblers rather 
than use the kind of stock they had previously bred 
from. This expenditure would have paid the first 
season, to say nothing about their improvement in their 
breeding stock for the future. Many breeding turkeys 
are over-fat in the spring — have been over-fed or given 
too fattening food. Quite frequently they die at this 
time as the result of over-feeding. The progeny of over- 
fat birds are less vigorous. Late J hatched hens that 
are growing all the time need more food ; cannot store 
up a surplus, and lay earlier because they are thin. 
Feed the old hens clover and less carbonaceous food 
in the latter part of the winter and they will give better 
satisfaction. Corn is all right when turkeys can find 
their own green food and insect ration to go with it, 
but when they get little exercise and can get nothing 
else to eat they become abnormally fat. 

ISOLATION OF DISEASED BIRDS NECESSARY. 

"If a turkey becomes sick and is allowed to roam 
with the others, and to eat, drink and roost in the same 
places, the others will probably have that trouble very 
soon. If a flock becomes diseased, the land which they 
wander over may become contaminated and infect 

42 



other flocks that occupy the same ground. Therefore 
stamp out disease when it first appears. Let every 
turkey raiser be a board of health; quarantine or kill 
and bury deep all sick fowls and disinfect what they 
have contaminated. Prevention of the spread of dis- 
ease is possible. Doctoring very sick turkeys is rarely 
practicable. If turkeys are kept where they may drink 
from stagnant pools in the barnyard, near the pig pen, 
privy vault, or from the sink drain, sudden and fatal at- 
tacks of bowel trouble should be expected among them. 
A running stream is of great value on a turkey farm. 
If brine is poured out and they drink it, or they pick 
up pieces of salt, salt meat or salt fish, death usually 
follows." 

Report of R. I. Experiment Station. 



The Bronze Turkey. 



There is more profit in raising turkeys than any poul- 
try raised on the farm, but occasionally we hear people 
say, "there was nothing in turkey raising for me," and 
nine times out of ten the fault might have been traced 
to the management, kind of stock, etc. 

On every hand we see the common or scrub stock used. 
We believe in thoroughbreds, even in cats. Turkeys 
are just as easy to raise as chickens, but we must use 
care and not inbreed, as so many do. Inbreeding is 
more fatal with turkeys than with hens. Procure new 
stock each year, either in the shape of a thoroughbred 
gobbler or eggs from a reliable breeder of thorough- 
breds, and you will find your stock improve and be 
strong, vigorous and mature quickly. 

PREVENTING LICE. 

Lice will kill young turkeys quicker than anything 
else. The use of some good insect powder on the old 
hens before hatching will prove a great help in prevent- 
ing lice on the poults. 

Improper feeding is another cause for delicate tur- 
keys. Corn is usually fed too heavily to the hens dur- 

43 





- 

w 
o 

o 



ing the winter and the old turkeys are apt to be very 
fat when they commence to lay. Toward spring the 
hens should not be allowed to run to the corn bin, but 
should be on a regular egg ration, for fat hens and 
fertile eggs will not go together by any means. 

HOUSING THE TURKEYS. 

We do not believe in confining the hens in a close 
run during the laying season. The old turkeys can be 
confined in a large shady yard if it is not desired to 
hunt for the eggs. Some turkey breeders claim that 
turkeys do much better if hatched by a turkey hen, but 
our experience has been that turkeys raised with chick- 
en hens paid us much better than those raised with 
turkey hens. True, they seem to grow faster and thrive 
better if raised with turkey hens; but when raised with 
chicken hens they practice the habit of coming up for 
their meals and do not wander off from home and "come 
up missing" so often. At selling time we receive a 
greater income from those raised by chicken hens than 
from those raised by turkey hens. 

After the turkey commences to sit, erect a temporary 
cover over her to protect her from rain and storms. 
There is no question but turkey raising is very profit- 
able, especially where one is located on a large farm. 
Turkeys are largely self-supporting, and although with 
some there is a difficulty in bringing them to the two 
months age, yet they are very hardy thereafter. 

THE POPULAR VARIETY. 

The most profitable and by far the most popular tur- 
key is the Mammoth Bronze. It is the largest variety, 
and will outweigh any other A r ariety of the same age by 
several pounds. They cost no more to raise, and there- 
fore are most profitable. They are the hardiest and 
most extensively raised of any breed. They do not at- 
tain their full size and weight until about three years 
old. At maturity the hens weigh from fifteen to twenty 
pounds and gobblers thirty-five to forty pounds each. 
They bear confinement to yards remarkably well, and 
the young are easily raised, if proper care is given them. 
They are excellent layers and good mothers. 

45 



The plumage of the male turkey on back and breast 
is of a brilliant bronzy hue, which glistens in the sun- 
light like burnished gold. Wing coverts are a beautiful 
rich bronze, the feathers terminating in a wide, bronzy 
band across the wings when folded. The plumage of 
the female is similar to the male, but not so brilliant. 
Who would not be proud of a nice flock of Bronze tur- 
keys, regardless of the profit they produce? 

J. C. Clipp. 



R-aising Young Turkeys. 

Sometimes the turkey hens will begin laying early 
if the season is mild. In caring for young turkeys much 
depends on the feed for the first two months. The first 
food should be stale bread soaked in milk; also chopped 
onion-tops, and curd made from soured or clabbered 
milk by scalding it over the fire. To this add a little 
black pepper three times a week, and feed four times 
a day the first month. Hard-boiled eggs may be given 
three times a week, but do not give them too much. 

TURKEYS REQUIRE FREQUENT FEEDING. 
Turkeys require feed oftener than young chickens. 
Give them all the milk they can drink and plenty of 
fresh water. Give small grains of any kind for a 
change; millet seed and pinhead oatmeal are excellent 
the first two weeks. Corn bread mixed with sour milk 
is a good change. Never feed raw corn meal, as it is 
not beneficial, and never leave feed to remain, as it mav 
become sour; but give only as they will eat up clean 
at each meal. A little fresh meat, finely chopped, three 
times a week, may be allowed. When old* enough to 
eat corn feed anything they will eat, as after that the 
danger is over in regard to feed. Keep the coops clean 
and dry. Keep their drinking cups clean, and do not 
expose turkeys to rain or dew, as they are very tender 
in regard to dampness; but in fair weather let them 
have range in the daytime, confining them to their coops 
at night. Give plenty of sand and sharp gravel. Give 
them a dust-bath of sifted coal ashes; it will make 

46 



chicken lice hunt other quarters, and use the lice rem- 
edies whenever necessary. Set the turkey eggs under 
common hens. They make good mothers, as they do 
not stray far from home, and can be confined with less 
trouble in small coops, allowing one hen to each coop. 
If kept confined a few days the hen will take her own 
coop at night. If the hen discards them very young, as 
is sometimes the case, drive them to their coops until 
they can fly to roost. An important point is to examine 
carefully twice a week for the large lice on the heads, 
a single one of which will kill a young turkey. One- 
half of the young turkeys die from this cause. These 
lice come from the hens. The remedy is one or two 
drops of melted lard, well rubbed in on the head, but be 
careful and use but very little, as grease is fatal to both 
young turkeys and chicks. 

SOON LEARN TO KNOWN THEIR HOME. 
Turkeys will soon learn where they belong if care is 
used at first, as they can be taught to remain near the 
barnyard, and the time to begin with them is when 
they are young. If the wings of the adults are cut 
they will not fly over a high fence. They can easily 
be made to thrive on a large lot. It is an excellent plan 
to feed them twice a day at one place, so as to have 
them expect their meals and come up for the food, but 
the morning meal should consist of only about a gill of 
wheat. At night give a full meal, one night wheat and 
the next night chopped meat. Where there are many 
trees they cannot easily be induced to go under shel- 
ter, but if the young turkeys are taught to go up at 
night, and are not allowed to remain outside, they will 
always come up; but that would necessitate the re- 
moval of the old one after the young turkeys are three 
months old. Much depends on the forage. Turkeys 
like grass seeds and insects, and will seek such foods 
if they do not have them on the ground. They will not 
bear close confinement, but will thrive on a large piece 
of ground. It does not pay to allow them to stray off 
if foxes, dogs or other enemies are numerous. — Farm 
and Fireside. 

47 



Turkey Raising on the FeLi-m. 

The other day I chanced upon an article by a well- 
known turkey breeder, in which, after extolling the 
merits of his own breed, the Bronze, dealing out a mod- 
icum of praise to the Narragansett, mentioning the 
White Holland with a certain degree of respect, and 
simply naming the Black, he remarks: "Buff and Slate 
turkeys, for practical purposes, are 'no good,' and are 
kept only as a matter of fancy for their color, and are 
very small and inferior." I have been breeding Slate 
turkeys for several years, and I know from practical 
experience that they are good utility birds, as well as 
being of a color which is unlike my neighbors' turkeys, 
consequently easy to recognize when the flocks mix in 
the fall. That they are very beautiful and attractive 
is certainly not against them. At one time I bred 
them for size as well as feathering, but found that the 
young birds were not ready for market, even at Thanks- 
giving, and some of them were hardly marketable at 
Christmas. I secured a torn, last year, with great 
width of back and fullness of breast, and the young 
stock last fall were fat and plump at Thanksgiving, 
and in every way desirable. The flock were nearly all 
hens, and weighed from eight to twelve pounds, full 
dressed, which, for the retail trade to which I cater, is 
most acceptable. Even the hotels will pay two or three 
cents per pound less for turkeys from twenty pounds 
up than for smaller birds. The strain wuth broad backs, 
full breasts, stout shanks and moderate size, which 
careful breeding will produce, is the best with which 
I am acquainted for private families and small hotels. 
Turkeys feel the results of inbreeding more than most 
kinds of poultry, and new blood should be obtained 
every year, if possible. Where it is desirable to change 
once in two years only, it is better to breed the same 
torn to his daughters, rather than to save a young torn 
to breed to his sisters. 

AT NESTING-TIME. 

When the turkeys show signs of nest hunting it is 
wise to put barrels or roomy boxes in secluded places. 

48 



putting plenty of marsh hay or straw, without chaff, 
in them. Make the nests firm, and put a bar across the 
front, which will keep the eggs from rolling out. Be 
sure that the nesting-place will not hold water; an 
auger hole or two will make this positive. A nest egg 
or two in the box will help to attract Madame Turkey. 
I save hens' eggs which I suspect of being addled, boil 
them hard, mark them "Boiled" in large letters, and 
use them for nest eggs, as they are more attractive to 
the hens than glass eggs. Some turkeys can be coaxed 
into the prepared nests by watching them and not al- 
lowing them to wander far from them. Turkeys which 
have been kept tame are much easier to manage than 
those which are wild. My own birds will allow me to 
approach their nests when they are laying, and even to 
take out their eggs, without running away. When the 
first turkey to begin laying has laid from fifteen to 
twenty eggs it is well to begin setting the turkey eggs 
under good, reliable common hens. Put the nests where 
they are secure from marauders, and give the hens from 
seven to nine eggs, according to their size. When the 
turkey hens become broody give them from seventeen 
to twenty-one of these partially incubated eggs, and 
when they hatch give all the poults to the turkeys. 
The hens and the turkey should be well dusted with in- 
sect powder before they are given eggs, and, if possi- 
ble, two or three times during incubation. This is easy 
with hens, but it is sometimes difficult to lift a turkey 
from the nest without endangering her eggs. 

CARING FOR THE YOUNG. 
When the young turkeys begin to hatch remove them 
in a warm basket to the house and dust them with in- 
sect powder, but do not cover them, for they are very 
delicate when first hatched, and may smother. If the 
hen becomes nervous while removing the poults, take 
her out of the nest, and have an attendant hold her and 
give her a good dusting with the powder, while you im- 
prison the shy, soft little turkeys. Leave a turkey or 
a pipped egg in the nest to keep the mother happy, put 
her at the front of the nest and go away quickly. The 

49 






best plan I have ever tried for the first two or three 
days with young turkeys was to take a large dry-goods 
box, slat it across the front, making a door to admit the 
turkey. Take off one or two boards at the back and 
cut the side boards on a slant ; put on a roof which pro- 
jects three or four inches in front and back. Old oil- 
cloth, zinc or sheet-iron which will turn water, answers 
to finish the roof and make it water-tight. Make a pen 
in front of the house by setting two boards with one end 
of each against the side of the house and let the other 
ends come together at a point; fasten securely with 
stakes, and make sure that there is no place where the 
foolish little turkeys can hurt themselves or get fast. 
Have a twelve-inch board in front of the coop on the 
ground, fitted so that it may lie close to the coop for 
the youngsters to run out on, or be fastened up against 
the slats to prevent their coming out at all. Leather 
hinges do very well on the door, and a leather strap 
with a slit cut through to pass over a fence staple gives 
a secure fastening, if a nail is put through the staple 
after the leather is slipped on. The board may be se- 
cured across the front by two large wooden buttons. 
When incubation is finished, take the hen turkey from 
the nest, put her in some inclosure, give her a generous 
feed of corn and water and leave her for an hour ; then 
put her into the box-house, grease the head of each 
little poult with soft lard, and when ready take them 
to their mother, put them into the box as quickly and 
quietly as possible and leave them to become accus- 
tomed to the new home. 

FEEDING THE POULTS. 

The poults require no food for the first day. For the 
early feedings I put a little fine grit in the bottom of 
a shallow jelly-cake pan, and scatter the food over it, 
bread soaked in cold, sweet milk, and squeezing out 
dry, being the first feed; then sour milk scalded and 
the curd drained dry and mixed with the bread crumbs. 
The food is usually seasoned with black pepper. After 
the first few days the turkey is allowed to run out dur- 
ing the day, but is fastened into the house at night. 

50 



'When the poults are a week old the whole brood are 
given their liberty, but are watched and put under cover 
in case of storm, and are housed at night. In two or 
three weeks the hen will insist that she knows more 
about turkey raising than her caretaker, and will not 
permit herself to be shut into the house, and when this 
takes place let her have her own way, but keep watch 
of her and feed the brood two or three times a day. 
By this time the poults regard their caretaker as a sec- 
ond mother, and will come at the call. In case of hard, 
sudden rains, I have carried the whole drenched flock to 
the kitchen, and warmed and dried them, even when as 
large as common hens. Turkeys need the tenderest care 
till they are from six weeks to two months old, when 
they can find for themselves; but; it is well to coax 
them home every night by generous feeding at a fixed 
hour. They will not often forget the habit if it is a 
custom. If they do not come themselves, find them and 
bring them home. 

SOME IMPORTANT POIN 1 S. 

The utmost gentleness should be used to all kinds of 
poultry. It pays to have them tame. Cleanliness is 
also absolutely necessary. The coops for the birds 
must be thoroughly cleaned often, and if the floor is 
kept covered with dry sand, in which a little carbolic 
acid has been mixed, it is well. It is not wise to have 
the turkeys and chickens run together, though when 
the brood of young turkeys seems too small for the hen 
she will adopt chicks, or even ducks, and give them the 
same care she does her own young. After the young 
turkeys begin to wander I mix their sour milk curd 
with ground grain, cracked corn, boiled wheat screen- 
ings and anything which I give the chicks, except I do 
not give them meat. 

Turkeys are a profitable bird, and though the first 
few weeks of their existence are anxious ones, they are 
soon able to care for themselves and pick up the greater 
part of their food from the fields and forests. 

S. A. Little. 



51 



Success With Turkeys. 



The cry of cholera among turkeys comes to me from 
many persons, and these are not confined to a given 
locality or State. From Mississippi, Wisconsin, Penn- 
sylvania, Iowa, and many other States I have received 
letters reporting cholera among turkeys, and often 
they say there are no symptoms of the trouble among 
the chickens. I have never believed it very kind in re- 
ligious matters to try to shake one's faith in one thing 
without giving him something higher upon which to 
fasten his faith; yet in the matter of disease with tur- 
keys I cheerfully try to convince my correspondents 
that it is not cholera which affects their flocks, for 
many facts appear to me to prove that it is not cholera, 
and yet I may not be able to tell exactly what it is. The 
fact that the turkeys linger for days, and sometimes 
even weeks, is one reason for believing it is not cholera. 
Another is that in many instances the chickens and 
turkeys are in the same yard and the chickens are not 
affected; then again, about the only symptom common 
to all inquiries is that the droppings are a yellowish 
green. Some describe the heads as black, saying they 
mope around and will not eat. Others say the head is 
red to the last, and they eat up to a few minutes before 
they are seized with an attack like convulsions; and 
still others say they have puffs under the eyes, while 
another flock has a white substance floating over the 
eye. 

SYMPTOMS OF DISEASE. 

It is a fact that almost any disease of a turkey will 
cause the droppings to become yellowish green, showing 
that disease in turkeys, like disease in the human fam- 
ily, sooner or later affects the digestive organs. 

Often indigestion is. the cause of the trouble. I am 
not positively certain that I ever had a genuine case 
of cholera in my yards, though I well remember when 
I thought every chicken or turkey that died had it. 

I have been informed by a correspondent that there 
is a much larger per cent of deaths from what is known 

52 



as blackhead than from cholera. He says what has 
often been pronounced cholera is blackhead. He also 
informs me there is absolutely no cure for it which can 
be relied on to be even comparatively a cure, and that 
the cause is unknown. This he wrote me some time 
since. He said that Lee's Germonoze is the best remedy 
known to him. I had some experience with the trouble 
in the flock of a neighbor, and I decided it was caused 
from over-feeding while young, and then turning them 
out without any food; at least, I found when I exam- 
ined after death that the liver was perfectly soft and 
the gizzard twice the size it should have been. 

USE OF RED Pi£PPER. 

I find many persons use a great deal of red or cay- 
enne pepper and soda in turkey food. Because I had 
been taught to do this, I did like my neighbors when 
I commenced raising turkeys, but I soon began, as Mr. 
Johnson suggests, to use my common sense, and I won- 
dered how on earth anything could live, especially a 
wee bit of a turkey, with the crop filled with pepper, 
soda, sulphur, copperas, also custard, milk, curd, and 
many other things I was told I would have to feed to 
be successful. I said, "I shall try a way of my own," 
and whenever I have just had the sense to do my own 
way I have succeeded in keeping my flock healthy. 

The greatest trouble I have is in early spring, when 
turkeys will eat dry grass. They become crop bound. 
I believe I have a sure cure for that, which I will give 
later. 

GOOD MARKET FOR TURKEYS. 

There will be more money go into farmers' hands 
from the sale of turkeys this year than for many years 
past. Turkeys are now selling on the market at 8 cents. 
Then talk about them eating their heads off! If a man 
sells hogs at 5 cents a pound he thinks he is doing a 
fine business, says he is getting 50 cents a bushel for his 
corn ; but when a woman sells her turkeys at 8 cents a 
pound she is doing far better and is doing her husband 
a double favor; it is a favor to him for her to pay her 
own and part of his bills; besides, she gets 8 cents a 

53 



pound for grasshoppers, which, but for her turkeys, 
would destroy the corn fodder and injure the hay, as 
well as ruin the cabbage. 

This is fine growing weather for fowls, and turkeys 
especially. They can get all they need to eat by forag- 
ing now, and are making bone, and later they will take 
on flesh. Now is the time to select the oldest ones, and 
if they do not get plenty to eat, begin feeding them, for 
as soon as it turns cold there will be a cry for turkeys. 
People want a change in meat. They are tired of beef 
and of chickens and fish, and will pay a good price for 
turkeys. I expect to kill my first turkey for a family 
reunion on the 15th of October. 

SELECTING THE SHOW BIRDS. 

The fancier is looking over his or her flocks to see 
which ones are fit to show, and already inquiries^ are 
coming in asking, "What can you furnish me for the 
winter shows?" 

It is a little too early to decide on the show birds, but 
still we think we can almost say which will score high- 
est in our flocks. Persons often ask me if I will insure 
the turkeys I send to win first. No, I do not, and if 
others do they are either prophets are humbugs. I can 
only know what my stock is. I cannot know what it 
will meet in the show room, neither can I tell how a 
judge whom I have never seen score, nor seen any 
stock he has scored, will score. 

It does seem to me, however, that this is wrong. If 
the Standard is a plain book and means what it says, it 
seems to me that it should be understood so that there 
can be no difference in scores of the same fowls in same 
condition and weight, and yet we know there is. The 
only guarantee one can give is that in his judgment 
it will score so much, and if it is beaten it will take a 
fine bird to do it. 

I do not believe anything is gained by over-confi- 
dence. I do not hesitate to say that I believe I owe my 
success in a great measure to my feeling of doubt and 
desire to obtain only the best. 

Well do I remember when I went to Sedalia with 

54 



three turkeys and five chickens. If any one had told 
me I would come back with a blue ribbon I would have 
thought he was making fun of me. Those three turkeys 
won four prizes and the chickens obtained one first. 

This gave me the exhibition fever, which never goes 
down; not that I feel I have always had justice in the 
show room, for I have not, yet I can truthfully say I 
have never believed it to be the fault of the judge. 

There is too much carelessness in weighing when so 
much depends on weight in show rooms. Give me just 
weights and I am willing to take chances under any 
judge I have known. 

ALL BREEDERS SHOULD EXHIBIT. 

Whether we win or whether we are beaten in show 
rooms, it is better to exhibit, and when I could attend 
a show I have never failed to sell enough to cover ex- 
penses of entrance fees. There we meet and exchange 
views with other fanciers, which is a great benefit to 
the one who is isolated from other fanciers at home. 

It seems to me that the poultry business and especial- 
ly turkey culture is one belt which reaches around the 
globe. America is sending fine turkeys to foreign coun- 
tries, and the West is furnishing the East with her best 
turkeys. This year I shipped eggs and turkeys to New 
York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, 
California, Canada and Mexico, so that from Maine to 
Georgia (for I have shipped to each of these States), 
from the extreme West to the extreme East, turkeys 
are raised. They are one American bird which will 
thrive on any land, will grow on any soil, or in any cli- 
mate, and are considered a luxury by all, from the king 
on his throne to the humblest laborer in his hut. 

The practice by railroad officials and other large cor- 
porations of giving at Christmas one turkey to each 
man in their service, and where ladies are employed to 
them also, has lightened many a heart that otherwise 
would have felt the absence of the festal bird on the 
Christmas table. And this practice reverts with benefit 
to the farmer's wife, who with her turkey money can 



55 



buy many Santa Claus presents which he otherwise 
could not distribute in her family. 

The turkey is the king of American birds and Amer- 
ica rules the poultry world, imported stock notwith- 
standing. 

******** 

Mr. Bancroft, of Memphis, Tenn., asks, "What must 
I do for our young turkeys and chicks? They turn blind, 
the flesh gets brown, they sit around a few hours and 
die. The tongue is pale and slimy. * * * yy e have 
lost two old turkeys the same way. * * * We use 
Lambert's Death to Lice and grease their heads with 
sulphur and lard. We feed them three times a day corn- 
meal and bran mash, with oats and chops mixed/' 

COOKED FOOD FOR POUIyTS. 

If Mr. Bancroft gives the food to the little fellows un- 
cooked it is not surprising that they die. Turkeys need 
very little bread, but if well baked and crumbled to 
them it will not hurt them. I consider bran injurious 
to turkeys and chicks unless it is baked with other in- 
gredients. 

Give the chicks the mixture above mentioned, pre- 
pared as follows: Put it in the oven dry and let it heat 
gradually until so hot that it will make a noise like 
anything frying on a stove when water is poured on it. 
Then pour just enough cold water on to thoroughly 
dampen it. Stir well and the heat will make a steam 
that will swell the bran and chops so that it will be fit 
for the crops of little chicks; it is also very good for 
poults if it is all you can get, but be careful not to over- 
feed. Little chicks and little turkeys must not be 
stuffed; let them scratch and get hungry. I feed my 
chicks only twice a day, when they have good range, 
for they are much more thrifty if not over-fed. 

SULPHUR FOR IvICFy INJURIOUS. 
I would not advise the use of sulphur in lard to grease 
the heads. The lard is sufficient and the sulphur takes 
away proper use of legs; it is also liable to cause blind- 
ness. Use clear lard or thick cream and grease the 

56 



flight feathers just where they grow out from the wing 
bone. Insect powder is liable to cause blindness if it 
gets in the eyes. Use tobacco stems and tobacco dust 
as follows : Smoke the roosting-places with the stems, 
and sprinkle the floors with the dust. 

Feed the little turkeys wheat bread soaked in milk 
or warm water. A hard-boiled egg mixed with it as a 
variety is very good. Cut up lettuce, onion tops or pep- 
per grass with it. Plantain cut up fine is also good, 
but where little turkeys have a good place to run on 
the grass the green food is not so necessary. Give 
plenty of grit. I mix it in food or keep a supply near 
the roosting and feeding places. 

SMALL EGGS MAY MATCH BIG TURKEYS. 

I have been experimenting with some small turkey 
eggs. I found that some of my largest hens after they 
had laid several normal sized eggs laid very small ones 
— not as large as Brahma eggs. I had six of these on 
hand and would not ship them, but when I set the in- 
cubator I put them in it. When hatching time arrived 
I removed them and gave them to a chicken hen; she 
hatched six turkeys, and I find instead of them being 
very small weaklings they are good-sized, thrifty little 
poults, and if I can resist over-feeding, and keep them 
from rats, which seem determined to live with us, I 
think I will prove that a large turkey can be raised 
even though it was hatched from a very small egg. 

By this time the hatching season for the fancier is 
over, both with chickens and turkeys. Of course, the 
hen may steal her nest and hatch a brood of chicks or 
poults, but the bulk of the hatching has been done and 
we are counting up the proceeds of the year's work in 
our minds. 

Already we are planning how we shall provide win- 
ter quarters for chickens, and roosting sheds for tur- 
keys. Many trials will beset us, do as we may. Only 
this morning I had a new experience with turkeys. 
Reading so much about fruit and poultry going so nice- 
ly together. I put my little turkeys in the meadow, 
which is set out in fruit trees. Seven cherry trees laden 

57 



with large red cherries are admired by all passers-by, 
and I thought I had an ideal place for turkeys, where 
they would not be bothered by any of the other fowls. 
Yesterday I noticed a little turkey drooping. This 
morning I found it dead in the house. As it is my cus- 
tom to try to find out the cause of the death of every- 
thing which dies on the place, I proceeded to hold an 
autopsy over the turkey. It had no vermin; was not 
thin in flesh ; no signs of cholera or bowel trouble. On 
examination I found all the organs in healthy condition, 
but on cutting into the gizzard I discovered four cherry 
seeds. These could not pass out of the gizzard, and so 
killed the turkey. Now I am in a dilemma. I have no 
other suitable place to put these turkeys, and they are 
being taken care of by a chicken hen, which stays under 
the cherry trees, and I fear I shall lose all those little 
turkeys. This was one of six hatched from the very 
small eggs, and they have been growing so nicely 1 
hoped to raise all of them. If I can keep them a week 
or ten days longer the cherries will be gone, and then 
I may rest contented. I am specially anxious to keep 
these, as I want to demonstrate that it does not take a 
large egg to produce a large turkey. I do not think the 
seed would hurt a turkey five or six weeks old, but 
these are not three weeks old, and the seed could not 
pass out of the gizzard. 

IvOW PRICES MB: AN POOR STOCK. 

If you send out fresh, fertile eggs, well packed, to 
honest customers, ninety-nine out of every hundred will 
either report a good hatch or tell you there were local 
reasons why they did not hatch. When people are will- 
ing to pay good prices for eggs, they are generally of 
that class who do not expect something for nothing. 
It is the 50-cent and dollar-a-sitting people who are 
hard to please, and it is the party who sells eggs so 
cheap who is liable to send out stale, infertile, poorly- 
packed ones. 

This does not necessarily apply to the beginner, for 
I realize he has a reputation to make, and cannot com- 
mand as high a price as one with a reputation made, 

58 



but depend upon it that no matter how good your stock 
is, the fancier will not patronize you as long as you sell 
toms at $2.50 each. Why? Because he knows that you 
cannot afford to sell first-class birds at that price, and 
though you may have good stock he will be afraid to 
take the risk of buying from you. 

Keep good stock, study the Standard, and be able 
to know whether yours is as good as it should be. Don't 
be a bigot, for the "know-all people" are a disgrace to 
any business or profession. Next to these the poultry 
business is weighed down with the "I-have-all-the-good- 
birds" people. 

I may have different views from many, but I really 
believe that he who causes "two blades of grass to grow 
where only one grew before" is a benefactor to man- 
kind, and so I believe that one who can without injury 
to himself start a fellow mortal in fine poultry is a 
benefactor, too. 

A PREVENTIVE) FOR FIGHTING TOMS. 

A lady in Maryland writes : "I can't agree with you 
that hot mashes cause roup, for in my native home 
(Canada) I fed my turkeys hot mashes from the time 
they were a few weeks old until they were grown, and 
so did my neighbors, and we raised large flocks and 
were never troubled with roup. Here I have not fed 
the mash and have the roup." Boosting in trees may 
be the cause of roup in her flocks now, as she says they 
never had it when roosting under shelter. I agree with 
her that in extreme climates a shelter is better. She 
also gives me a preventive for fighting which I shall 
certainly use. It is as follows: Tie a small bell around 
the neck of the toms, showing a disposition to fight. 
The noise attracts their attention so they forget to 

fight. 

A MYSTERIOUS DISEASE. 

Another inquirer desires information concerning the 
disease affecting her turkeys, but I can only surmise the 
cause of death. She says : "They mope about for a few 
days and die. The discharge from bowels is first yel- 
low, then green." She adds: "I do not believe it is 

59 



cholera. The turkeys have been running on buckwheat 
fields, and some say this will kill turkeys," and asks if 
I have had any experience with buckwheat. I have not, 
and do not know whether it will kill turkeys, but have 
been under the impression that it would be good for 
them. Honey dew is said to be poisonous to them, and 
possibly this is the cause of death. Tadpoles will kill 
turkeys (so say old turkey raisers), and I am very much 
inclined to believe that many young turkeys die from 
insects or animal poisons of some kind which they get 
in orchard fields. I am not fully convinced that tad- 
poles are injurious, for the reason that my turkeys have 
always had access to ponds, and tadpoles are always 
abundant in stagnant water. I believe clear, running 
water better than the pond water for fowls, and I be- 
lieve much of my success on the farm with turkeys has 
been due to running water; still the pond water was al- 
ways in the fields in which they were. 

THE BEST BREED. 
Now comes a question, which I receive many times 
during the year, especially at this season: "Which do 
you consider the best breed of turkeys?" I am very 
frank to say that as I know comparatively little of any 
breed except the Bronze, I am not a competent judge 
of the best breed, but I do know that the Bronze is de- 
cidedly the most popular breed, and that which the ma- 
jority like best must at least be the equal of any other 
breed. There are some objections made to the Bronze 
which may not be made to other breeds, and yet these 
objections are to the advantage of turkeys if properly 
managed. Many write, "I don't like the Bronze tur- 
keys because they roam so much." And they certainly 
will roam if allowed free range, yet this roaming is Yerj 
conducive to the vigor so much desired. Besides, the 
Bronze can be confined to small range with as much suc- 
cess as any other turkey. They can be trained to be 
as gentle and taught to stay at home if they are never 
allowed to visit, but if once allowed to get out on large 
range they are hard to make contented at home. My 
turkeys will eat out of my hands, and I can and often 

60 



do bring flocks raised on farms to my place and in a few 
days they will be as gentle as those I raise. Turkeys 
are very susceptible to kind treatment and gentle man- 
agement. 

THE BEST BLOOD THE MOST PROFITABLE. 

Another question asked is, "Do you advise me to get 
thoroughbred stock or grade turkeys?" I do not know 
how to advise another in this matter except to tell what 
I should do — I should never have "grade" anything on 
the place, except the highest grade of standard-breds 
I could get. Especially is this true of turkeys. I do not 
mean that I should under all circumstances raise only 
show birds in turkeys, but I should get the best blood 
and improve it every year if possible, and while I 
might not make show stock a specialty, yet they would 
be an even flock at no more expense than a common 
one and much more profit. 

PROFITS IN POULTRY RAISING. 

It is no longer a question, "Does poultry pay?" but 
the question now is, "How can I make it a better pay- 
ing business than it now is?" True, we do see some 
advertising that they raise poultry for pleasure alone. 
When I arrive at that financial state where I am able 
to raise poultry for pleasure alone I do not intend to 
advertise it for sale, or have any anxiety over pleasing 
customers, lying awake at night, wondering if fowls 
shipped will meet the expectation of the customers and 
worrying when a customer writes, "I want a perfect 
turkey," after pricing a good breeding bird cheap. No, 
indeed! When pleasure alone is the object I shall raise 
my stock and let it go on the market or to those who ask 
for it. I shall not advertise for trade. While it is true 
that I derive pleasure from my present management, it 
is also true that there is not enough to do it for pleas- 
ure alone. There is too much anxiety, and there are 
too many men and women of many ways of doing busi- 
ness, for it to be all pleasure. True, the one in ten does 
stop to give a kindly word of thanks, and often the 
other side when in trouble remembers the kindnesses 
of other days and — asks for another favor! There is 

61 



great pleasure in knowing that the labor of my hands 
has aided in making the family comfortable — still the 
idea given through advertisements of poultry for pleas- 
ure is that money is not a consideration with the ad- 
vertiser, he or she doing it for the love of the poultry. 
Yet write to one of these for prices, and the very high- 
est are given. So I conclude they, like myself, find the 
pleasure in the remuneration. 

NINETY EGGS A SEASON. 
A. lady in Oklahoma writes, "I want to tell you that 
I have a turkey hen which I positively know laid ninety 
eggs this season." She wrote this at the suggestion I 
made in a former article of never having had those re- 
markably good layers. She gave me the pedigree of the 
turkey, and as it is pure Mackey Pride of the West 

stock I feel a little proud of that hen. 

******** 

CONSTANT ATTENTION NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS. 
I cannot, as I have often said, do much for a very 
little turkey, but I do not think where one has good 
strong parent stock that it is very hard to keep the lit- 
tle ones healthy. Not hard in the sense of an intricate 
work, but it is work continually — that is, no day must 
go by without cleaning the roosting house. I sweep 
the floor every morning, whitewash it once a week, and 
three or four times a week dust with insect powder or 
use a lice paint once a week, whichever is most con- 
venient. If I can keep turkeys six weeks or two months 
I feel they w 7 ill live, unless they have an accident. 
There must be no cessation of care from start to finish, 
and after they are large enough to go out into the 
wheat fields they are no trouble except to see that they 
are at home at night; yet one time neglecting them 
may cause the loss of the entire flock. Our farm is six 
miles distant, and I cannot have the benefit of the shat- 
tered wheat or that as I once did. My advice to all 
poultry raisers on large farms is to stay on them. Do 
not let any one induce you to think a small place is bet- 
ter. It has its advantages, but they are over-balanced 
by the disadvantages. 

62 



POST MORTIS M EXAMINATIONS. 

I advise that persons losing turkeys hold a post-mor- 
tem. I do that with every one that dies unless I know 
the cause of death. If the parts show no diseasej am 
sure that the balance of the flock will likely keep 
healthy and that death was due to some accidental 
cause rather than disease. If I find the parts diseased 
I begin to use prevention on the others. It is almost 
impossible to know the cause unless I do hold the post- 
mortem. 

BEST METHOD OF MATING. 

First, be sure your stock is strong and vigorous — 
never breed from a delicate turkey because it is well 
marked — it will not pay. If you ape entering the fancy, 
size must be the first consideration. To be candid, I do 
not believe this the most sensible point to consider; but 
there is no use to butt my head against a stone wall 
when the only result will be to get my brains knocked 
out. So it is useless for one woman to say that it is not 
the wisest way to mate to have extremely large parent 
stock, when the Standard gives more points to weight 
than anything else in turkeys, and when every judge 
knows that the blue ribbon often goes to an inferior 
bird simply because he is up in weight. It has been 
several years since I selected my best marked turkeys 
for the show room. Why?, Simply because I knew 
that more depends on weight than markings. Every 
fancier knows, too, that in spite of all we may write to 
the contrary, the largest turkeys are seldom the best 
marked, hence often the very best marked birds are 
killed on account of lack of weight. 

DISTINCTION BETWEEN WEIGHT AND SIZE. 

Again, it does not by any means follow that the heav- 
iest turkey is the largest; but size is judged altogether 
by weight, and often the breeding stock is injured by 
overfeeding in order to advertise weight. In my opin- 
ion, fanciers are to blame for this demand for such 
heavy birds. They have created the demand for them 
by advertising them, and I do not hesitate to say, and 
my customers will bear me out in the statement, that 

63 



<;:> 

:'-^- :-/-. 




w 

« 

Q 
«! 

O 

w 

i— i 
B 




in advertising these weights they often have but a few 
birds of weights claimed in the flock, and the customer 
is disappointed in the purchase. In climates where 
turkeys are hatched early they mature early and weigh 
in the fall and early winter w T hat Western birds weigh 
in Januar}' and February; but we cannot hatch our 
turkeys so early, and consequently only a few of them 
attain maturity so early; but they are just as large- 
boned and vigorous, and are really better breeding 
stock for cold climates. Hence in saying I should make 
size the first consideration, I do not want to be under- 
stood as saying weight. After size I would make shape 
the next consideration, though size and shape go very 
nearly together. In both males and females select 
birds with broad breast and back. I prefer tall turkeys 
when young, for the tall, young turkey is the one that 
will make the heavy-weight bird when two years old. 

SIZE,, VIGOR, AND WEIGHT MUST NOT BE SAC- 
RIFICED TO FANCY MARKINGS. 

Last come the markings. I find that Standard- 
marked females do not produce as finely-marked males 
as the darker ones, so in my flock of breeding birds 
I keep the females as nearly half and half with Stand- 
ard-marked breasts and those darker than the Standard 
requires. To be more clear, the edging on the breast 
and back feathers of the female is required to be dull 
white or gray, and the wider the edging the higher the 
turkey scores. The Standard female produces finely- 
marked females, but the hen with a very narrow band 
of this edging produces the best-marked toms, the edg- 
ing on the toms being black. Wing barring and tail 
markings are the hardest points to get. It is very hard 
to find both tail penciling and wing barring good on 
the same bird. One fancier attaches more importance 
to wing barring and another to tail penciling, and 
judges do not cut alike on these points, for judges 
differ widely in their interpretation of the Stand- 
ard. I take the torn with the very best markings in 
both these sections that I can ^ei, and mate him to the- 
best-marked females I have. 

65 



I do not hesitate to use a female that would be dis- 
qualified in either wing or tail markings if she is extra 
large and otherwise well marked. If I am asked why 
I do this, I reply, because the torn will likely overcome 
the color disqualification (especially is this true of line- 
bred stock where the blood is royal), and the female 
gives the size to young stock. Besides, it there are dis- 
qualified color markings and the bird has the size, there 
will be as many calls for that kind as for the best- 
marked ones, and if it must go on the market it will 
bring a good price. A fancier should never use any but 
.a well-marked torn, for he is more apt to transmit color 
markings than the female; yet the female often trans- 
mits color markings. 

SEIZING CULIyS. 

Many fanciers say they will not sell culls at any price. 
By culls I mean birds not up in color markings. I sell 
birds that are not always up in fancy points, but I never 
sell one except to market breeders or persons who ex- 
plicitly state that they do not care for fancy points. 
Again, it is well to state that I do not mean by culls 
birds which evidently are not pure bred stock, and this 
brings to mind the fact of stock having been exchanged 
on the road between the point of shipping and the place 
of destination. Two of the finest marked toms I sent 
out last season were proved to have been exchanged 
and birds put in their place which were not even thor- 
oughbred Bronze. But the best bred Bronze may throw 
a turkey with wings with white splotches instead of 
evenly barred. These white splotches, while not a dis- 
qualification, are given as "very objectionable" in the 
Standard. I purchased last spring from a lady who 
had gotten her from a well-known fancier, a turkey hen 
which was sold to her as a high scoring bird. She had 
a straight gray feather in one wing. I have no doubt 
that she was thoroughbred, but it seems strange that 
a fancier would sell her for a high scoring bird. I wrote 
the lady about it and she replied, "I relied wholly on 
his statement concerning this hen and hope you will not 
think I misrepresented her to you." 

66 



SCORING BIRDS. 

Last spring a lady wrote me that she wished to pur- 
chase a torn and wanted me to score it. I wrote her 
that I had never sent out a bird with a score card with 
my own name to it, but she insisted that I score it, as 
she wanted to put him on exhibition next year. I did so 
and am tremblingly waiting the result of the show so 
that I can know how nearly I came to the score of a 
professional. I should certainly prefer that the respon- 
sibility of scoring be on someone else. Even when 
Theo. Hewes and C. A. Emry sign score cards some 
people say they are of no account. One breeder said: 
"I would not trust a judge in America to select a torn 
for me, but I will describe what I want, and if you 
have it and will ship on approval I will take him." I 
declined. But while all fanciers are liable to mistakes, 
I believe that only a few are intentionally dishonest as 
compared with the number who advertise. And I can 
say that Missouri fanciers have always sent me just 
what they described, so have the Eastern fanciers from 
whom I have gotten stock, though sometimes I have 
been disappointed in results. But my motto is, "Try 
again." 

A MYSTERIOUS MALADY. 

There are many disappointments in all occupations, 
but at times there are more unexpected disasters in 
poultry breeding than almost any other business. Such 
was the feeling of several turkey breeders in this neigh- 
borhood a few weeks ago. Two flocks of turkeys 
(young ones) died without the least sign of disease, 
and upon examination after death no cause could be 
found. They were not lousy and seemed in perfect 
health; would eat heartily at night, refuse to eat in 
rthe morning and be dead before night. I confess I 
could do nothing for them, as I had no basis to work 
ion. If anyone can help to solve the problem of the 
cause of death in these flocks at the age of from four 
to six weeks, the information will be gladly received. 

I have received several inquiries from others de- 
scribing death in their flocks as occurring in the same 
manner. The trouble was confined to turkeys, for the 

67 



chicks on both farms were never in a healthier state 
and are growing very fast. Another flock of turkeys 
in perfect health was devoured by vermin. As I was 
directly interested in all of these flocks, I felt very 
much discouraged and was fearful that I would find 
the flocks on the other farms short; but a drive one day 
this week showed me that I need have no fear along 
this line and that larger and finer turkeys than I have 
ever had at this season of the year are now ready for 
shipping. 

PREPARING FOR EXHIBITION. 

This is a season of rest with the turkey raiser, if one 
is to be taken at all, for turkeys are now finding plen- 
ty to eat in the fields and have passed the danger of 
death from disease for a time at least; yet if any of 
them are to be put on exhibition very early they must 
be carefully tended by seeing that they have plenty 
to eat and are kept growing. They cannot be fattened 
while growing, but they may be kept growing by 
proper care. On large farms they can gather their own 
grain, and this year there are so many grasshopper* 
that they are well supplied with animal food. 
SWELLED HEAD AND ITS REMEDIES. 

Again and again the question comes, "What must 
I do for swelled heads in turkeys?" ^Some say the old 
birds have it; others, the young ones are attacked. I 
have given at different times as many as a dozen reme- 
dies, but will here repeat some of them. All are good, 
but so far I have found no remedy that cures all cases. 
I have used Conkey's Roup Cure, Littell's Liquid Sul- 
phur and Mexican Mustang Liniment, and have effect- 
ed cures with all of them and failed with all. I have 
used the salt water, tincture of iodine, sulphate of sil- 
ver, with like results. I have just received some sam- 
ples of Cushman's Roup Specific, and I believe from 
testimonials that it is all that is claimed for it; but as 
my fowls are now perfectly healthy I shall have to 
wait for an opportunity to try it. 

FIETHY QUARTERS. 

I do not like to go against public opinion, and I da 

68 



abominate filthy quarters for fowls; yet when I go 
through the country I find that some of the healthiest 
flocks I see do not have clean roosting places, and I 
conclude that chickens and turkeys are not half so 
tender as many fanciers suppose. Then I wonder how 
many fowls these people could raise if they took care 
of them. 

the: turkey always a welcome guest at 

the feast. 

Can we be imaginative enough to picture to our- 
selves the difference between a family group at a 
€hristmas dinner in 1799 and one at a Christmas din- 
ner in 1899? Of one thing we are sure, and that is that 
the turkey was present at the former and also at the 
latter. We may go in imagination to the Christmas 
of 1999, and no doubt the turkey will be there. The 
turkey will be the main part of the feast at Thanks- 
giving and Christmas, at weddings and festal occa- 
sions, for time to come. We cannot recall a holiday 
time when it was not used, nor can we imagine one. 
Hence it certainly is not a matter of surprise that so 
much time should be given to the culture of turkeys. 

Is it any wonder, then, that at this season letters 
of inquiry about breeding stock are coming thick and 
fast, and purchases are being made that the best re- 
sults may be obtained? I think not. 

SELECTING THE BREEDING STOCK. 
I do not remember a time since I have had charge 
of this department when a month passed without some 
inquiry about disease with turkeys. Since my last 
writing, letter after letter has come to my table tell- 
ing me of the healthy condition of turkeys and the 
success attained in raising them the past season. While 
this is very satisfactory in one sense, yet it leaves me 
without any pointers in the direction of my article, so 
far as health is concerned. But to be in line with in- 
quiries received I shall answer some questions con- 
cerning breeding stock. In almost every letter I am 
asked to give description and weight of turkeys which 
I would recommend as breeding stock. 

69 



Right here I wish to say that I notice a practice 
among fanciers that may be all right, but I do not 
consider it the golden rule practice, to say the least. 
It is this, to send an inquiry on plain paper asking 
price of "good breeding birds," and after getting spe- 
cial price for such birds to send an order in a busi- 
ness envelope on a business letter head, with contents 
as follows or about as follows: "When sending these 
birds be sure that you send good ones, for I shall put 
them on exhibition as your birds." Now, it does seem 
to me that fanciers should not sail under false colors, 
and if they want exhibition birds should so state, for 
I am sure no breeder would not be willing to sell an 
exhibition bird for the price of a good breeding bird. 
More than once have I been caught in this net. Some- 
one may ask, "Why did you not return the money?" 
For more than one reason I have not done this 
at times, and at other times I have returned the 
money. If I feel that it will be a good advertisement 
for me and I have stock enough on hand to send a bet- 
ter bird than priced, I would rather fill the order than 
lose a customer that way. In other cases I have sent 
just what I described and they were satisfied. But if 
one inquires for exhibition stock he should so state, for 
there are many excellent breeding birds (especially is 
this true of the Bronze turkeys) which are not exhibi- 
tion birds. 

FEWER CUELS AMONG TURKEYS THAN AMONG 

CHICKENS. 

I hear some one say, "I think I have read that Mrs. 
Mackey says there were fewer turkey culls than chick- 
ens." And so she does; but while there are fewer culls 
among turkeys than there are among chickens, it is 
also true thai under the present Standard some of the 
very best breeding birds are not first-class exhibition 
turkeys. For instance, all turkey raisers know that 
there is a tendency to brown edging on tail coverts 
in some specimens, and it is a notable fact that these 
specimens are usually very strong in wing barring and 
that they are decidedly larger boned than those which 

70 



possess the Standard gray and white edging. Now such 
a bird cannot be sold for exhibition, but if one is rais- 
ing turkeys for market and selling torus to other mar- 
ket breeders, what better breeder would he want than 
this same brown-tailed turkey? For as the market poul- 
tryman pays for pounds, it is the torn with size that 
one raising for market must get. Again, one may be 
poor in wing for exhibition and fine as a breeder. Yet 
I am sure that at least ninety per cent, of the best bred 
Bronze turkeys can be put on exhibition when fully up 
in weight, and whether they win a prize or not they do 
credit to the owner. 

Again, I am asked how much a judge will cut for 
gray edging instead of white. Oh, me! How can I tell 
what a judge will do? On general principles, he will 
cut all he can. For my part, I do not see that he has 
a right to cut at all. The Standard says, "White or 
gray, white preferred." It seems to me if it allows 
gray as standard the judge has no right to cut for 
gray edging on tail. If only white is standard, say so 
in the Standard, and then we will know what is stand- 
ard. 

PINK LEGS. 

Again, the question of pink legs comes up. Some 
write: "I want pullets and young toms with pink 
legs." The Standard says: "Shanks on young birds, 
dark, approaching black; in adult birds, usually a pink- 
ish hue or flesh-color." I haye had some pullets and 
young toms with shanks and toes almost as pink as 
the old birds'. I have some flocks that way last sea- 
son, and 1 doubt not I shall find some this season. Cus- 
tomers at different times have written, "I never saw 
pink legs on young toms until this one." But the rule 
is, they are dark when young. Some of the best hens 
in size have dark shanks always, while others get very 
bright pink — I prefer the pink legs, other things being 
equal. But I am candid when I say that I make size 
and not weight the first consideration in breeding 
stock. 

SELECTING FOR SIZE AND MARKINGS. 

The torn for the fancier alone must be well marked, 

71 



as lie impresses the markings on the young, and in se- 
lecting females I select size, then markings, and if I 
find an extra large bird of good shape, she does not 
go out of my breeding-pen because the edging is a little 
too dark on the tail feathers. And vet I find that 
every year the young stock comes nearer to Standard 
markings, there being a smaller per cent, each season 
that cannot be sent out as exhibition birds. 

NEVER BREED FROM A DEFORMED BIRD. 

There are certain rules I should advise every one to 
observe. Never breed from a turkey with a natural 
deformity. I once bought a sitting of eggs from one of 
the foremost fanciers I know. The only pullet raised 
had a crooked toe, but she was so fine I felt T could 
breed from her. Every year there would be a lot of 
turkeys with crooked toes, and these were the very 
best otherwise. It took several years to get entirely 
rid of crooked toes. It is such a temptation when one 
has paid a big price for eggs, and while I expect that 
under the same circumstances I might do it again, I 
believe it would be better not to use such a bird. The 
late Mrs. Foster told me that she would under such 
circumstances use the crooked-toed turkey as a breed- 
er, as she could dispose of the deformed ones on the 
market and breed out the tendency to deformity with 
her own cross. I finally did this, but it took several 
years. 

SHAPE FOR BREEDERS. 

As to shape of torn and hens to breed from, I select 
large heads and feet, long body, long neck, held well 
up, and a broad back and breast, with long shanks. A 
short turkey will fatten earlier and look larger when 
not fully matured than the rangy one, but the latter 
will make the weight at maturity much heavier, and 
will produce larger turkeys. I select hens the same 
way; yet if they are specially well marked and good in 
weight I would not discard them if not quite as tall as 
I like them to be when pullets. I am sometimes disap- 
pointed in pullets, but cannot remember that I ever 
have been in a torn — pullets sometimes are no larger 

72 



at two than at one year old. They often stop growing 
at one year, while a torn never does. Other pullets 
grow until they are two and three years old. 
METHOD OF MATING. 

My method of mating is simply this: Select the very 
best torn possible, and in females do not discard a very 
fine marked one because it is not quite as large as de- 
sired. By this I do not mean that I breed from small 
boned females. There are some larger than others in 
all flocks of the same age, and I should not advise the 
use in the breeding-pen of an undersized female, or a 
runt. Nor should I discard from my breeding-yard an 
extra large female because she is not quite up in fancy 
points, for the reason that the torn will overcome to 
some extent the defects. The well marked female will 
produce large stock from the mating with a large torn, 
and the one not so well marked will produce evenly 
marked young from the mating with a well marked 
torn. Yet these must be exceptional cases, for it will 
not do for a fancier to have many females in his breed- 
ing-yard that are not well marked and very large. By 
undersized, we mean pullets, for if at two years old a 
hen is not an average size I should discard her unless 
there were some special point I wanted to impress on 
my flock. 

RED LEGGED PULLET. 

I once had a red legged turkey pullet. She was not 
large when young, but her legs were almost too deeply 
colored to be called pink. I bred from her as long as 
she lived, or, I should say, until she was stolen. I could 
tell the turkeys from her eggs. They were a good size 
and invariably had pink legs when } 7 oung, though not 
as deeply colored as were hers. From this hen I got 
that line of breeding which gives in some of my yards 
pink legs in young stock. I can tell it wherever I find 
it. But this is the only female I ever kept that was 
under size after she was a pullet. It is better if the 
breeding-yard can be made up entirely of extra large, 
well-marked birds, but so many persons ask me about 
mating that I have given these opinions. 

73 



THE GOLDEN RULE SHOULD GUIDE THE FANCIER. 
Some ask me if I would use a late, small torn; an- 
other, a late, small pullet; aud if I would use a poorly- 
marked pullet or a torn. These questions are asked 
by so many that I reply to all at once. Never 
should a fancier use a late, small-boned torn, or a poor- 
ly-marked one. Those raising for market only have 
nothing at stake except a few more dollars in or out of 
their personal accounts. The fancier should consider 
the interest of his customers and never breed from 
anything he or she would not be willing to have shipped 
to them. It is not so much a question of whether a 
customer is pleased as it is whether you have treated 
him as you would be willing to have him treat you 
were your positions reversed. We might please a cus- 
tomer simply because he would not know what he 
ought to receive, and one might be dissatisfied for the 
same reason. The fancier should know what he or she 
should ship, and do right because it is right. 

SETTING TURKEYS ON THE GROUND. 
One lady says : "Can you tell me what is the matter 
with my turkey hen? Her entrails are out for half a 
foot or more. I put them back, but they do not stay. 
Otherwise she seems perfectly well." No. I do not 
know what will cure her, because I never had any ex- 
perience; but I think I should put her in a small place, 
where she could not exercise, and put the entrails back 
with vaseline or pure lard. If this did not cure her 
I should not know what to do. It may have been 
caused by her laying too large an egg. This same per- 
son asks if it will do to set a turkey on the ground if 
a nest is made. I prefer setting in a barrel, for if the 
weather is very wet there will be too much moisture 
for the eggs set on the ground. I have known the eggs 
to rot from dampness and have also known the poults 
to be so large they could not get out of the shell. Too 
much moisture will spoil the hatch out of the incubator 
as well as in it, but turkey eggs can stand much more 
moisture than chickens'. In fact, turkey eggs require 
more moisture than chicken eggs. 

74 



HATCHES FROM SMALL EGGS. 
Another inquirer writes: "Will turkeys hatched 
from small eggs grow to be as large as those hatched 
from large eggs?" She says: "My breeding stock is 
large, the torn weighing thirty-five pounds and pullets 
and hens from sixteen to twenty-two pounds, but they 
lay small eggs. Do you know the cause? Do you think 
they will make large birds?" All I know in this line 
is from experience, and I have raised the largest tur- 
keys I ever owned from small eggs. 

A SATISFACTORY EXPERIMENT WITH SMAEE EGGS. 

Years ago I bought a setting of eggs from a promi- 
nent turkey fancier. I bought them in partnership 
with another lady. I was sorely disappointed when I 
opened them, and ashamed to let the other buyer see 
them, for I had influenced her in going in with me to 
make the order. So I told her I would release her and 
take all the eggs if she were not pleased, but she de- 
cided to take her share. We decided we were badly 
beaten, but as our money was gone we concluded to 
make the best of it by keeping still. I never saw such 
small turkey eggs. I made another order to another 
fancier, and never saw larger eggs than I received. 
The turkeys hatched from the small eggs grew to be 
larger at maturity, though, of course, they were not so 
large when hatched. 

One torn from the small eggs weighed forty-four 
pounds at two years old and one hen twenty-four. 
Those from the large eggs never got so large, though 
they were fine* turkeys. In speaking of this to an old 
lady and my surprise at results she replied: "I don't 
see why you should be surprised. Nature does not 
vary much, whether in lower animals, the feathered 
tribe or the human family. All depends on the blood." 
I believe the old lady was right. I prefer medium- 
sized eggs, both in turkeys and chickens. I find the 
very large eggs hatch large young, but they are not 
generally as well formed and often are weak-legged, 
and while medium-sized ones hatch smaller young they 
seem more vigorous and grow much faster. Of course, 

75 



there are eggs that are small to deformity — so are there 
those that are large to deformity. Often the last egg 
laid before a hen goes to sitting will be so small it will 
have no yolk at all. I have had one that way this sea- 
son. It is also true that the largest eggs are not al- 
ways laid by the largest hens, though as a rule pullets 
lay smaller eggs than hens. In my yards this season 
I have found an exception to the rule, both with hen 
and pullet. One of the largest hens I have, that 
weighed twenty-four pounds in the winter, lays rather 
a small egg, and one of the pullets lays an unusually 
large one. 

AN EXPERIMENT WITH A I^ARGE EGG. 

I am now experimenting with the largest turkey 
egg I ever saw. It is larger than a goose egg. I am 
sure it must have two yolks, but I decided to try it, so 
set it. I am also experimenting with a broken egg', 
that is, a cracked one. I have up to this morning only 
those two turkey eggs being sat on at home. I found an 
egg cracked only slightly, so I pasted a thin cloth over 
the crack and put it with the large one under a sitting 
hen. I have hatched eggs that were cracked in an in- 
cubator, but my neighbors have insisted they will not 
hatch under hens. They also say the large egg will 
hatch a deformed turkey or not hatch at all. It is, I 
think, a universal complaint that turkeys in the North 
and West were unusually late in commencing to lay 
this spring, consequently the hatches will be later than 
usual. If we can have a good season and late fall those 
hatched in June will make show birds in January, pro- 
vided proper care is taken of them, and July hatches 
make good breeding stock. 

NUMBER OP EGGS TO A CEUTCH. 

I am asked how many eggs a turkey hen will lay be- 
fore she sits. Some lay more than others, and some- 
how I never get hold of any of those wonderful fowls 
I read about. I never had a hen that laid more than 
fifteen or sixteen eggs before she wanted to sit, and I 
have many more that lay only twelve than I have that 
lay fifteen. It may not be good policy to tell such a 

76 



thing on my turkeys publicly, but I am telling facts. 
A turkey ben may easily be broken from sitting if she 
is taken in time, and by this means I often get twenty 
to thirty eggs before I allow a hen to sit. A hen will 
lay in ten days after she is stopped from sitting, and 
sometimes in shorter time. 

SWOLLEN FOOT ON TOM. 

Some one writes: "I have a fine young torn which 
has something the matter with one of his feet. The 
middle toe is swollen larger than the middle finger on 
a man's hand. I thought it might be bumblefoot. 
Please answer soon. State cause, disease and remedy." 
As this letter contained a stamped addressed envelope 
I should have been glad to reply if in my power. He 
says the torn has had the swelling several weeks. I do 
not know the cause, as I cannot tell without seeing 
the toe; but it is not bumblefoot, as that is on the bot- 
tom of the foot. If the torn were in my yard I should 
examine for a splinter or some foreign substance. If 
he is roosting high or even low he may have lighted on 
a nail, a splinter or something else and run it into his 
foot, causing the swelling. If I could not find anything 
of that sort I should examine for pus and cut the ris- 
ing, letting the pus run out. I would then bind with 
Mexican Mustang Liniment, and I think with a few 
treatments he would be well. 

DROOPING TURKEYS. 

Still another inquirer says: "I wish you to tell me 
what to do for my young turkeys. Last year I lost 
nearly all of them. They did very well until about 
half grown and then they died. They ate heartily un- 
til they began to droop and then they did not eat any 
more until they died." I cannot tell from the facts 
given what was the matter with this lady's turkeys. 
I will just here tell my readers that when asking 
questions of one who cannot see your fowls, it is neces- 
sary you should know and describe the symptoms of 
the disease in such a manner as to make it plain to the 
person to whom you are writing. No one can say what 



77 



is the matter with a fowl when she only knows that it 
quits eating and droops. 

My way may not be the best, nor even only good, 
but it is the best I know, and I will give it for what it 
is worth. 

When I have a drooping fowl I catch it and make a 
thorough examination. Sometimes it is a very small 
ailment and can be easily remedied. If after I have 
done what I could for it, it dies, then I have an autopsy 
and do my best to find out the cause of death. When 
this is discovered I think I can usually prevent other 
deaths from like causes. 

SOFT-SHEL,L,ED EGGS. 

I have not as yet begun to experiment with poults 
this season, but if my two eggs hatch I shall have some 
experience for next month; if they do not I have a 
neighbor who will have some poults in a short time 
and I shall have plenty of practice with them. 

One more question is at hand: "Why do my hens 
lay soft-shelled eggs?" I suspect they are too fat, or 
perhaps they lack grit and lime. It will not do to give 
them lime unslacked or even air-slacked, but if you 
will put it in. a vessel and pour water enough over it to 
make a thin mortar of it and let it set two or three 
days or longer, then give it to the fowls, you will see 
how eagerly they eat it, and it is very good for them. 
I dissolve in a candy bucket. When I put it out I put 
it on the ground in as near a solid lump as I can get 
it. The fowls soon have it broken up, but it falls in 
lumps and after it thoroughly dries it is quite hard; 
then I break the lumps into pieces the size of grit or 
larger. I feed little chicks on this place when I can. 
for the lime is good for them after it has been treated 
in this way. 

SWELLING ON HOCK. 

A breeder writes to know what to do for his tur- 
keys. He says they have a swelling on the hock that 

78 



seemed to have pus in it, but when opened it does not 
run. 

I am entirely unacquainted with the trouble, and 
have no remedy except to bathe in Mustang Liniment. 

My turkeys have been entirely free from disease this 
year, but pigs, cats and a varmint of some kind made 
havoc among them in the daytime for a period. I 
killed the cat, set the dog on the pigs, which action 
scared the varmint away, and now they are having a 
good time. I have taught the poults to come up with- 
out going to hunt them, and much strength and shoe 
leather are saved thereby. Turkeys can be taught to 
stay at home, and I have trained the hens that carry 
mine to come up at night, which is a comfort to me. 

FEEDING AND CARE. 

The turkey is by nature a wild animal, and is found 
in cold as well as in warm climates. It is an American 
bird, and I can remember when droves of wild tur- 
keys were no uncommon sight in my native State, Vir- 
ginia. These turkeys never had a hot mash nor a 
drink of hot water. They roosted in the highest 
pine trees they could find and drank from the flowing 
streams and springs in that mountainous region. They 
gathered the grain of the fields, and the insects which 
they caught served for meat. So if I were to select 
an ideal place for raising turkeys I should select a 
rocky, hilly place, with plenty of running water and 
plenty of grass, bounded by unlimited range, a place 
free from coyotes, foxes, minks, weasels and every- 
thing else which would destroy my flock. I should let 
them do just as they pleased, except I should feed and 
pet them just enough to keep them gentle. 

I do not believe I should ever be troubled with chol- 
era, roup or any of the diseases incident to tenderly 
raised fowls. But since this ideal place is not attain- 
able I do the very best I can. I have demonstrated 
that thirty turkeys can be kept on less than an acre 
of ground during laying season by turning them out 
each day after they have laid in an orchard where they 

79 



got water and ate apples and insects and plenty of 
grass. Out of this thirty not one was sick. Eleven 
were shipped the 1st of June, and the remaining nine- 
teen are still healthy. However, they have had plenty 
of freedom since July, so that while I believe free 
range preferable, I have demonstrated that turkeys 
can be successfully handled in limited space. To do 
this they must be supplied with those articles of food 
which they get on free range. I have kept grit, oys- 
ter shells and lime before them constantly. 

CAUSES OF ROUP. 

For me to say that I do not know what causes roup 
and then tell you that I believe filth produces it may 
seem contradictory, yet I have noticed that when tur- 
keys roost low in the same place and the droppings 
are either not removed or are kept covered with lime, 
those turkeys frequently are attacked with roup symp- 
toms. I also observe that if turkeys are not taught to* 
roost in the same place they frequently change their 
roosting places; hence I conclude it is better for them 
to do so, and we all know that the higher a turkey can 
get at night the better pleased he is, so I think pure 
air is very necessary for them. I think, too, that ex- 
treme changes in climate produce roup, yet I did not 
have a case of roup in my yards last winter, as cold as 
it was, and the care of my fowls for two months was 
left to my husband and little boy, who are not very 
much in love with poultry, and they thought when 
they gave them plenty of corn they had done their 
duty. Nothing but severe illness could have induced 
me to fail to give them my personal attention. The 
greatest loss I suffered was from toms fighting, and 
this caused swelled head, which finally killed them. 
By the w r ay, I should like to ask if any one can give me 
a preventive for fighting 

Mrs. B. G. Mackey. 



80 



Prevalence of Tapeworms in Turkeys, 



I am convinced that tapeworms cause the death of 
great numbers of little turkeys, and that some suitable 
worm medicine should be frequently given them 
throughout the season. Turkeys are troubled with 
tapeworms from early spring until late in the fall, and 
sometimes have spasms from this cause. Very young 
turkeys suffer the most. After the}' are three months 
old they are better able to withstand the injurious ef- 
fect. The worms apparently irritate the bowels, caus- 
ing digestive derangement, diarrnea, weakness and 
death. At certain seasons segments of worms may be 
found early in the morning under the roosts among 
the droppings of the infected turke}'S. Evidently the 
younger they receive the parasites, the more they suf- 
fer. Doubtless if the birds survive until the embryos 
have developed and have mostly passed out, they may 
gradually recover. A few worms may do little harm, 
while a great number may be fatal. 

HOW CONTRACTED A QUESTION. 
How the young receive the embryos in the spring 
is an interesting question. Whether snails, worms, or 
insects harbor them, and thus scatter the infection, 
or whether they receive the infection from the drop- 
pings of old turkeys, is yet to be determined. Keeping 
the turkeys on fresh, clean gravel, with light doses of 
freshly-powdered kousso or cusso as a medicine, is the 
best treatment. 

REMEDIES FOR TAPEWORM. 
Male fern is an effective remedy, but an overdose 
is a distinct poison. Six drams of the oil have caused 
the death of a person. It has been known to cause 
blindness in the lower animals and should be used with 
extreme caution. It is often given in combination 
with castor oil. Tansy is much used as a preventive 
and powdered areca nut for the removal of tapeworms 
from dogs and other animals. The latter is frequently 
combined with male fern. Ground pumpkin seed is 
also used as a remedy. The dose of these remedies. 

81 





H 

« 
P 

Q 

<J 
h* 

►3 
O 

w 
w 



would have to be much reduced for turkeys. Turkey 
raisers may administer very light doses to a few tur- 
keys and larger doses to others, and thus learn how 
great a quantity may be given to healthy turkeys with 
impunity. It is to be hoped that many may be able to 
apply these remedies with success and immediately 
prevent loss from this cause. Assafoetida, which is 
highly recommended for preventing and overcoming the 
gapeworm disease of fowls, is also said to possess vir- 
tues as a tapeworm remedy. This is administered either 
in the food or water. M. Megin, a French investi- 
gator, gave each pheasant seven and one-half grains of 
assafoetida combined with same quantity of pulver- 
ized gentian in their food, and overcame the gape- 
worm. 

FOR LICE ON TURKEYS. 

I am especially interested in turkeys, although we 
have three varieties of chickens, besides ducks. In all 
the articles I read concerning turkeys the writers say 
to look for lice on the top of the head and at the root 
of the flight feathers, but not one mentions the place 
where I find five to one to other places, and that is 
in the down on the young ones and at the root of the 
feathers on older ones on the large part of the thigh 
on the outside of the leg, about where the leg leaves 
the body. 

The best food I have ever tried for the little poults 
is the curd that rises on the swill barrel. It is better 
than what is cooked on the stove. With this food and 
plenty of Lambert's Death to Lice on the hen before 
hatching time the little poults never have a thought 
of ''turning up their toes." If you do not have Death 
to Lice use fresh lard every four or five days, applied 
where you find the lice. 

Of course, dampness is another enemy to turkeys, 
but I have no experience in that line, as here in Mon- 
tana we rarely have long continued storms. 

F. K. Carver. 



83 



MaLnaLgement. 



Turkeys that are allowed to stray about too care- 
lessly are very easily picked off by night prowlers. 

The onty way to raise first-class turkey stock is by 
giving poults plenty of exercise. The more of it they 
have, as a rule, the better they will grow and be in the 
end. Ranging about the fields, catching grasshoppers 
and other insects is the only thing that will give a 
growing poult the vigor that will develop it into a 
strong adult fowl. 

RANGE FOR TURKEYS. 
There is a general belief that exercise makes tur- 
keys and other fowls tough, and therefore they should 
have no range to roam about in. This is true only to 
the extent that they become tough when taking an 
excessive amount of exercise. A range is necessary 
for the development of all fowls. The turkeys in par- 
ticular need it. They should not be frightened, chased 
or worried while in the range, for that makes them 
tough and lean and spoils them as first-class birds. 
A flock of turkeys brought up naturally in a good 
range will weigh more, have finer and sweeter meat 
and be healthier all round than the birds brought up 
in the daintiest manner and spoon fed from their birth 
in narrow quarters. It is a natural life for them to 
roam about, and they should have all they want of it 
up to a period of a month before killing time. Those 
intended for the Thanksgiving market can be kept in 
the range until the 1st of November. They will im- 
prove by it and lay on flesh rapidly. — Wisconsin Agri- 
culturist. 



Turkeys in the AlfaJfa. Patten. 

I fence a patch of alfalfa of four or five acres with 
wire netting, five feet high. If grass is not high enough 
to give good protection when turkey hens first begin 
to lay, I put a number of boxes around and let them lay 



under the boxes, and when they want to sit I fix a 
good nest right on the ground and leave the box over 
them to shade them, but leave box open on side at all 
times so hens can go to feed and water at will, unless 
two or more hens try to sit on same nest; in that event 
I pen one or two up in boxes and feed and water them 
in box until chicks are hatched. 

By the time first sitting is off, the grass is high, and 
the hens hide their nests. I never disturb them, only 
to try and secure them when hatching, and put hen 
and chicks under a shade tree near ditch or pond, so 
they can take care of themselves. I usually carry 
about twenty or thirty hens and two or three gobblers 
in this pasture, and, in fair luck, I raise from 200 to 
300 young turks every year. 



Rearing Yo\ing Turkeys. 



There is a general impression among farmers that 
turkeys are difficult to raise; so they are if the same 
method is adopted with them that holds good in rais- 
ing chickens on the farm, but if the habits of the wild 
turkey are studied and the flock allowed to imitate 
them during the breeding season there will be but few 
obstacles to success. 

The turkey has not overcome its wild nature to the 
same extent as the domestic fowl, and this fact must 
be considered. The domestic fowl when it hatches 
its brood of chicks is often cooped for a week 
or two, and when it is released it seldom wan- 
ders far from the coop, so that in case of storms or 
change of temperature shelter is easily reached. Not 
so with the turkey. If she is cooped for a time it makes 
little if any difference to her habits, and when she is 
released it seems that the further she can get away 
from her late habitation the better she is pleased. The 
poults have hitherto remained near the coop within 
call of the mother; they have been fed by the breeder, 
and the change of life which the wandering spirit of 
their parent renders necessary is entirely different 

85 



from that they have been accustomed to, and calls for 
more robust constitutions than they possess. The 
mother has passed that period which cautions her to 
limit the exercise of her young, which she naturally 
does when the poults are first hatched, and instead of 
gradually increasing the length of her rambles in 
search for food, she at once forces her young beyond 
their strength, and runs chances of exposing them to 
weather to which they have not been accustomed. It 
would have been better to allow the mother her free- 
dom from the first. The very weakness of the poults 
when hatched would keep them within reach of shelter 
for a time, and the weather hardening process would 
be gradual. 

FREE-RANGE TURKEYS THE} HARDIEST. 

We have heard old breeders say that the morning 
dew and the dampness harbored by fields of hay and 
grain do not injure poults that have had their freedom 
from the start. 

Turkeys with young will frequent the woods if there 
are any in the neighborhood, and among the trees they 
find sufficient vegetation to harbor insects while the 
ground is comparatively dry and free from long 
grasses. Such a location as that is therefore most de- 
sirable. Pasture fields, too, form a favorite range. 

Half the battle of raising turkeys is won if the breed- 
ers are allowed free range for some time before the 
breeding season, and receive only sufficient food to in- 
duce them to return home in the evening. This treat- 
ment renders them hardy, removes the surplus fat that 
has accumulated during the heavy winter feeding, 
causes the eggs to be strongly fertilized and the poults 
to be on the jump from the time they are hatched. 
Rearing healthy poults is a pleasure, not a hardship. 



If new corn is fed it should be given in small quanti- 
ties until the turkeys have become quite thoroughly 
used to it. 



86 



To Ha^ve Big Turkeys. 

Do not feed too much corn, but feed millet seed, oat 
groats to poults, with wheat and some cracked corn. 
Do not feed too much fattening food, but let them 
range out from the house. Do not feed with the chick- 
ens. Turkeys must have plenty of range to grow large 
and vigorous. Vigor in turkeys is the main thing to 
look after, and you will be sure to get size. — S. B. 
Johnston. 



Bourbon Red Turkeys. 

Mr. E. E. Page, of East Cleveland, who breeds Bour- 
bon Red turkeys, has this to say about them: 

"The history of the breed, as far as my knowledge 
of them runs, is as follows: About five years ago I 
moved to Knoxville, and while passing through Ken- 
tucky I noticed some dark red turkeys, and on making 
inquiry about them found that they were quite com- 
mon in that neighborhood, and that they were a wild 
turkey which used to run all over the State. I became 
interested in them and contemplated putting them on 
the market, but since that time I have not had a loca- 
tion to take up the business. Lately I started to look 
up the turkeys again and wrote to several parties in 
Kentucky and found some splendid specimens. It had 
been some time since I had given any thought to them, 
and it was my impression that they were called Bour- 
bon Reds, but on investigation I found that some called 
them Bourbon Butternuts and some Kentucky Reds. 
But I liked my name the best, and, having spoken of 
them several times under the name of Bourbon Reds, 1 
decided to adopt that name. S«inee investigating the 
matter more thoroughly I find that they have been 
hunted in a region called Turkey Creek, in Southern 
Iowa; also in Southeastern Missouri and Northern Ar- 
kansas. Wherever they are known they are very much 
admired, both in the wild and domestic state, and truly 
they are a beautiful fowl, being a dark red color, the 

87 



gobblers being the darkest and bordering on a brown r 
with white wings and tail, and the body feathers that 
have two narrow black bars running across the feath- 
ers, one on the tip being very black, the other close to 
it of a very light shade of black. 

COLORING, SIZE, AND WEIGHT. 

''The tips of all of the feathers have a bronze or 
bluish sheen, when shifted in the sunlight, similar to 
the bronze turkey. The under color runs out to nearly 
a w T hite, with a majority of it a beautiful buff. In size, 
shape and weight when domesticated they resemble 
the good old bronze turkey, but are more hardy, better 
layers and less liable to wander away from home, and 
some claim that they stay as close to the house as they 
care to have them. 

"The young are nearly as easy to raise as young 
chickens, and should meet with general favor on this 
account. This, together with their beautiful appear- 
ance and fine table qualities — large amount of breast 
meat — should make them sell well on the markets and 
to the fanciers. 

"They are in no sense a mixed breed, but just as 
pure a variety as the bronze turkey, and no cross with 
bronze, buff or any other variety will produce a natural 
pure-blooded Bourbon Red turkey. They have been 
domesticated in Kentucky for eighteen years to my 
knowledge, and I am personally acquainted with a gen- 
tleman who saw them twenty-five years ago in South- 
ern Iowa. The wild turkey is like the wild bronze — ■ 
long, lean and lanky — and can outrun a deer, but the 
domestic Bourbon Red turkey is heavier breasted than 
the bronze turkey. 

"Turkeys hatched in 1898 weigh now 36J pounds for 
gobbler and 18 pounds for hen ; 1899 hatched gobblers, 
25 pounds; hens, 14 pounds. I never saw anything 
that would outgrow them." — Poultry Keeper. 



88 



The Wild T\irkey. 



Inquiries in regard to the size and value of the wild 
turkey are numerous, and for the benefit of all inter- 
ested will give our experience with them. We have 
been breeding for ten years, on different farms, a flock 
each of the pure bronze and wild, and for several 
years have been experimenting with the two crossed, 
which beyond any doubt makes the most beautiful, the 
largest, the most vigorous and magnificent bird of all 
the turkey family. 

The pure wild turkey, when captured, is very hard 
to domesticate, and will oftentimes refuse to mate. 
But when hatched and raised from the eggs is quite 
easily domesticated and very handsome, indeed, being 
high in station, with the most perfect bronze plumage 
ever seen. In weight they are not so large as the 
bronze. The hen will average from 12 to 15 pounds 
at a year old, and the toms from 18 to 20 pounds. They 
are more hardy and vigorous than the bronze, and as 
Si table bird are superb, having a delicious flavor. The 
great value of the wild is in introducing new blood 
or crossing with the bronze. But few realize what a 
magnificent bird this cross makes. The wild gives vig- 
or, plumage and flavoring, while the bronze gives size 
and domestic qualities. — G. ' W. Brown in American 
Poultry Journal. 



James H. Wilson, in "Fancy Fowls," says: "The 
only true bronze turkey is the wild turkey. No one 
•ever heard of wild turkeys having cholera, roup or 
gapes. They are the healthiest, hardiest turkeys 
known, quick to detect danger and fight for their 
young. They are not hard to manage, as some people 
suppose. They don't stand around and wait to be fed. 
They get out to get their feed themselves and are easy 
to raise. By the time they are reduced one-fourth wild 
there is not much wild nature about them, although the 
color and constitution are greatly improved. I con- 

89 



sider it advisable for turkey breeders to infuse wild 
blood in their flocks." 



Habits of Wild Turkeys. 



When a wild turkey hen is ready to lay she scratches 
out a slight hollow in a thicket — beside an old log — in 
tall grass or weeds or in a grain field, and pretends to 
line it with grass or leaves, and there proceeds to de- 
posit her eggs, from ten to twenty in number, smaller 
but longer than those of our domestic turkey, but of 
the same color. Sometimes several hens lay their eggs 
in one nest and hatch and raise their broods together. 
Audubon found three hens sitting on forty-two eggs in 
a single nest, and one was always present to guard 
them. If the eggs are not destroyed, a single brood 
is raised in a year; but if they are, the female repeats 
her part of the performance, only being more exceed- 
ingly careful in hiding her nest and covering her eggs 
whenever she leaves the nest. Hunters "call" wild 
turkeys into range with peculiar whistles, and I have 
heard that this whistle, if successful, must be made of 
a turkey bone. They are also trapped. A turkey trap 
is nothing more nor less than a rail pen built strongly 
one rail square and as strongly covered, with the 
ground hollowed out under one side sufficiently deep 
to allow the turkeys to enter ; then shelled corn is scat- 
tered not too plentifully outside in the ditch and inside. 
The hungry turkeys come and begin picking up the 
corn outside; then they settle down to work to get 
that in the ditch. By this time they are so busy eat- 
ing they never raise their heads, but seeing the corn 
inside pass right under and into the pen. When their 
meal is finished we all know that turkeys raise their 
heads, and if frightened they never think of putting 
them down low, and thus it is they are easily secured. 
— Mrs. J. F. Knudeson, in Farmers' Advocate. 



90 





The F. P. G. PREPARATIONS, 

For Chickens and Turkeys. 

Manufactured by 

F. P. CASSEL, Lansdale, Pa. 

F. P.O. CHICK MANNA 

10 DAYS FOOD. 

For Little Chicks and Turkeys 

when first hatched. 

Promotes Health, Quick Growth, 

and Strong- Development. 

1 lb. 10c, 5 lbs. 40c, 15 lbs. $1.10., 60 lbs. bulk per lb., 7c 

Office of "A Few Hens" Experimental Farm. 

Hammonton, N. J., January 17, 1899. 
F. P. CASSEL, 

My Dear Sir: — I have used your Chick Manna all of last season with 
the very best results. The chicks not only like it, but they thrive wonder- 
fully on it, and you can count on me being a steady customer. To get 
chicks rightly started is the secret of successful broiler and chick raising - . 
The first two weeks is the critical period. We use the Manna exclusively 
for ten days and then gradually change over to other feed, and it gives us 
lively, strongchicks, which fully prepare themselves forthe moreforcing, 
fattening foods. Respectfully, MICHAEL K.BOYER, 

Editor of "A Few Hens." 

3f. H>. C Bgatba poultry ffooo. 

A specific for laying- hens. Contains no oyster shell 
or ordinary mill feed. 5-lb. pkg. 35c 60 lbs. bulk, per 
lb. 6c 

I am using your Agatha Food with good results. I consider it a valua- 
ble preparation, and John says, " It is the thiner to start the hens tolav." 
(Dec. 9, '99.) Very respectfully, DR. S. C. MOYER, Lansdale, Pa. 

Breeder of Light Brahmas, W. and S. Wyandottes, and Barred and 
Buff Plymouth Rocks. 

I have used your Agatha Food for some years and it is the best food I 
ever used to make the hens lay. My personal knowledge of the fact that 
it contains no ordinarv mill feed or oyster shells gives me additional con- 
fidence in its value. P. M. FREDERICK, Lansdale, Pa. 

3f. p. C. dfoultum in iparvo poultry powder. 

Valuable remedy for CHICKEN and TURKEY Cholera. 
Resorted to when other remedies fail. PURELY 
MEDICAL, no cheap material for bulk or weight in 
Multum in Parvo Powder. >£-lb. pkg. by mail, 28c ; 
1 lb. by mail, 50c 

3f. fl>. C IRoup preparation. 

A specific remedy for roup. Dissolved in drinking 
water, specially valuable for cankered mouth, and 
affected throat, valuable to use with Multum in Parvo 
Powder. Yz-Va. pkg. 28c ; 1 lb. by mail, 55c 

Jf. p. C. dfcaooc <3ape Cure. 

Properly used produces QUICK EFFECT, SURE 
CURE. Full directions with each can. Try it. 6-oz. 
cans by mail, 28c ; #?-lb. cans by mail, 53c 
Prices do not include transportation charges, except 
where prices by mail are given. Descriptive circulars 
free on application. 

Address communications to 

F. P. CASSEL, Lapsdale, Pa. 



^.GRASSHOPPERS^ 

ARE GREAT FOR 

TURKEYS 



BUT 



Fidelity pood 

IS GREATER. 

Prominent and progressive turkey raisers report fiat they can rear 
poults far more successfully on Fidelity Food for Young- Chicks than by 
any other system. Results — maximum of health and vigor, minimum of 
mortality. Fidelity Food for Youug Chicks, used bv leading fanciers 
and practical poultry men, 25 lbs., $1.25; 50 lbs., $2; 100 lbs.. $3.50. Fidelity 
Food for Fowls. Fidelity Fattening Food. 

The famous Fidelity Foods are manufactured exclusively by the 

Pineland Incubator & Brooder Co., 

JAMESBURG, N. J. 

And are also kept in stock and for sale by leading poultry supply houses- 

Mica-Crystal Co., 

CONCORD, N. H. 

Manufacturers of 

..MIGfl-GRYSTflL GRIT.. 

(Silica, Aluminum, Iron, and Magnesium.) 

Standard Poultry Grit of America, 

For Poultry, Pig-eons, Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Turkeys, 
and Birds. In Four Sizes. Made from a rock that will not 
take a polish. THE: ONLY GRIT containing- the elements 
essential to the g-ood health and eg-g--producing- qualities of 
the feathered tribe. Send for descriptive circulars. 

MICA=CRYSTAL CO., 

Concord, N. H. 



92 




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Wilson Bros 

EASTON, PA., U. S. A. 

Manufacturers of... 

Grinding 
Mills... 



For the 





Farmer, 

House=keeper, 

Poultry man, 

Gardener, 

Fertilizer 

Manufacturer. 



THE- 



PRICE S9.00. 

Weight 50 lbs. 



Family Grist Mill 



Grinds fine corn meal and 
graham for table use.., 

The Poulter's Bone, Shell, Corn, 
and Grit Mill. 

The Daisy Bone Cutter. 

The Gem Clover Cutter. 

Send for circular and testimonials. 




94 



MANN J S 

BONE CUTTERS 

MAKE POULTRY . . . 
BUSINESS A SUCCESS. 

GREEN CUT BONE Doubles the Egg 
Product. Makes hens lay in winter when 
eggs are high. Makes early layers of pul- 
lets. Grows the quickest maturing broilers 
that will bring the highest prices. 

MANN'S 

Is the Oldest and Most Reliable Firm in the 
Business. Their machines are used from 
one end of the world to the other. They 
lead in all up-to-date improvements. They 
make a machine that runs easier and cuts 
faster than any other. 

MANN J S MACHINE IS SENT ON TRIAL 

in competition with any other or without competition. It never fails to 
please, and is never returned by a poultryman who really wants a ma- 
chine. Send for free catalogue of Mann's Bone Cutters, Clover Cutters, 
Automatic Swinging Feed Trays, Granite Crj stal Grit, Corn Sbeller, etc. 

F. W. MANN CO., Milford, Mass. 





Green Bone 

Makes ICg-g^s. 

The Dandy 



Makes Cut Bone. 

THERE ARE OTHERS.... 

But what a difference ! 

If the hired man runs it you may not appreciate it, but if 
you turn the crank get 



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HE DANDY GREEN BONE 6UTTER. 



It cuts rapidly with little power. 

It cuts large bones direct from the butcher. 

It has a perfectly automatic feed. 

It has a tight-fitting receiving-pan, keeping all litter from the floor. 

It is made of the very best material and fully warranted. 

It has the endorsement of practical poultrymen throughout the country. 

A trial will prove it to be a " Dandy." 

Prices from $5 up to $100 according to size. 

Illustrated catalogue free. 

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95 



MRS. MYRA V. NORYS, Westfield, N. J 

State Institute Lecturer and Authority 



poultry Books ♦ . . 

" pocfcet=/lftoneE poultry'' 
170 pages, 50c, 

"jEasE poultry Ifteepina for ffiwaltto," 
96 pages, 25c, 



^^HESE BOOKS are terse, practical, helpful in an 
^^ extraordinary degree ; exactly what every beginner 

wants. They are bound in paper, and illustrated. 

Sent post paid at above prices. ' Easy Poultry - 
Keeping" is published by the Author, who offers the 
usual discount to the trade. Special rates on large orders 
for use as premiums. Cash dealings only. 



Standard-Bred.., 



Special attention given to furnishing exhibition birds, in 
both varieties. No eggs for sale. No breeds excel these in 
practical qualities. The Rose Comb Brown Leghorns are 
noted the world over as magnificent layers ; the White Wy- 
andottes both as remarkable layers and remarkably grand 
market birds. 

MRS. MYRA V. NORYS, 
Westfield, N. J. 



96 



THE 



$5 6liii Brooder. 

"It is Known by Its Works." 

THE STANDARD OF MERIT 
OF THE WORLD... 




rHE CHAMPION is the only brooder in the world which 
will successfully raise every chick whether the machine 
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with the thermometer down to zero and below, or in your 
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There are more Champions in use than any other five 
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brooder manufacturers in the world for their elegant cata- 
logue. 

J. A. Bennett & Sons. 



BOX IX, 



GOUVERNEUR, N. Y. 



97 



Dog Cakes, 
Charcoal Dog Cakes. 
Greyhound Cakes, 
Terrier Biscuit, 
Plain Round Cakes, 
Oatmeal Cakes, 
Puppy Cakes, 



Spratts Patent Manufacture 



Pet Do Cakes, Poultry Food, 

Cod Liver Oil Cakes, Game Food, 

Pepsinated Puppy Meal, Pig-eon Food, 

Orphan Puppy Food, Pheasant Food, 

Plain Puppy Meal, Chick Meal, 

Crissel, Cardiac, 

Cat Food, Bone Meal for Puppies. 



Of Remedies, Etc., the Following: 



Cure for Canker, 
Fit Cure, 

Distember Tablets, 
Anti-Rickets Tablets, 
Eye Lotion Tablets, 
Diarrhoea Cure. 



Dog- Soap (White), Vermifuge, 
Antiseptic Soap (Black), Puppy Vermifuge, 

Tonic Tablets, Liniment for Sprains, 

Mange Cure, Cooling Tablets, 

Eczema Cure, Locurium, 

Purgative Tablets, Hair Stimulant, 

Cough Tablets, Jaundice Tablets, 

A descriptive catalogue, containing - a short treatise on dog" 
diseases, feeding, etc., will be sent to any address on appli- 
cation. 

SPRATTS PATENT America Ltd., 
450 to 456 Market Street, Newark, N. J. 

Corner of Congress Street, 



CONTAINS EVERY PART OF AN EGG 
ALBUMEN, YOLK AND SHELL. 




" What's the matter, children ? " " We want some B. B. B." 
GREATEST MEAT FOOD KNOWN for Lay- Q D D 

ing Hens and Growing Chicks. Da ^D ■ IS a 

Boiled beef and Bone 

Differs from all other similar poultry food, in that it is made from ABSO- 
LUTELY FRESH MATERIAL, never over six hours old. The Cattle 
and Sheep Heads, Eights, Livers, and Beef are from stock slaughtered 
on the premises, and are cooked, dried, crushed, ground, mixed, and 
bagged, all within six to ten hours from time of killing. Samples sent 
free. 

GUARANTEED cheaper than meat, better than scraps. Safer than 
medicine; rich in albumen. It prevents leg weakness, bowel complaint, 
feather eating, and assists in moulting. 

50 lbs., $1.35; 100 lbs.. $2.25. 

D. W. ROMAINE, 

Successor to SMITH & ROMAINE, Sole Manufacturers, 

124 Warren St., New York City. 



98 



Banner Turkey Pills. 

These Pills are made 
expressly for saving 
the lives of young- tur- 
keys. Turkeys, just 
after they are hatched, 
should be given a little 
stimulant, to give them a g-ood start. O ur Banner Tur- 
key Pills contain just the right ingedients, having- been 
carefully compounded, and are fully guaranteed to be 
the best life-saver for young poults. Directions with 
each box. These Pills are put up in two size boxes — 
25c. and 50c. Boxes, postpaid. 






{ The Russ Chicken Cholera Cure. £ 

t The Russ Chicken Cholera Cure has demonstrated its it 
i superiority over all other remedies as a Cure and Pre- x 
) ventive of Cholera, Gapes, Canker, Diphtheria, Di- O 
t arrhoea, and Debility in fact, all bowel diseases that it 
i poultry are subject to. It is endorsed by the highest and x 
) best-known poultry and pigeon judges, fanciers, and O 
t authorities in the United States. When the Russ Chicken it 
£ Cholera Cure is once used, none other is ever substituted, x 

► Experience has so well established its good qualities, O 
t that we do not deem it necessary to dwell upon its merits; it 
\ all we ask is a fair and impartial trial, after which we X 
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\ Cholera Cure. Every bottle guaranteed. Price, 25c. 1 

► per Bottle ; cannot be sent by mail. Our im- x 

► mense Illustrated Poultry Supply Catalogue. Send for O 

► one * X 

► Excelsior Wire and Poultry Supply Co., ♦ 

► 26-28 Vesey Street, ♦ 

► W. V. RUSS, Prop. NEW YORK CITY. 4 



LofC. 



99 



Jua*-8 to/U! 



MAY 29 1901 



The Feather Library. 



The following list of books are the most reliable publica- 
tions of their kind in the market, and all our patrons should 
have them in their homes. 



"DISEASES OF POULTRY." 

By Dr. D. E. Salmon, Chief of the U. S. Bureau of Ani- 
mal Industry. The only complete book on diseases and 
treatment. 248 pages ; 72 illustrations. Price, cloth, $1 ; 
paper, 50 cents, postpaid. 

"POCKET-MONEY POULTRY." 

By Myra V. Norys. Tells how to make money raising 
poultry. The best book published, and is especially in- 
tended to assist women. 192 pages ; 33 illustrations. Price, 
cloth, $1 ; paper, 50 cents, postpaid. 

"THE AMERICAN FANCIER'S POULTRY BOOK." 

By George K. Howard. A thorough and complete work 
on poultry raising. Kvery branch of the business ex- 
plained. A book for the expert as well as novice. 170 
pages ; 215 illustrations. Price, 50 cents, postpaid. 

"MONEY IN SQUABS." 

By J. C. Ivong and G. H. Brinton. The only authentic 
treatise on raising squabs for market. Complete in every 
way. 93 pages; 32 illustrations. Price, 50 cents, postpaid. 

"THE FEATHER'S ART PORTFOLIO." 

This portfolio contains six beautiful pictures of poultry 
in half-tone and natural colors. Size 8x12 inches. Suitable 
for framing. Price each, containing six pictures, 50 cents, 
postpaid. 



» 



"THE AMERICAN STANDARD OF PERFECTION. 

L<atest revised edition. Published by the American Poul- 
try Association. Kvery poultryman should have a copy of 
" The Standard " to breed his fowls successfully. Price, $1. 



GEORGE E. HOWARD <& CO., 

305 10th St. N. W., Washington, D. C. 

100 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 856 630 P 




